Master of the Desert Nomads
Session One - Rendezvous in Pramayama
War is coming!
Our heroes would soon find themselves called upon to take on a particularly perilous quest. The armies of the Republic of Darokin, faced with the threat of invasion by a vast army of desert nomads from the west, have sent their forces out to deal with the enemy before they can threaten their borders. Outlying settlements have already been overrun. Rumours are that all manner of foul creatures bolster the ranks of this army, led by one known simply as The Master.
In the months running up to the war and the quest that our adventurers would undertake, each was busy dealing with their own affairs.
Mazaramus Goes Back to School
Mazaramus had returned to Glantri. Although he was still only an apprentice of the 1st Circle of Cryptomancers, he was eager to gain more knowledge of the runes. A mysterious elven woman, before endorsing his teachings in the learning of more runes of power, quizzed him on his ambitions and intentions, seemingly curious about his chaotic nature.
Whilst in Glantri, following his studies of Cryptomancy. He studied the various notes he had collected from Tharadodus' laboratory, along with what bits of information he had found in the dungeon of Castle Amber. He then rented a laboratory, using the knowledge he had gained to construct three wood golems.
A Den of Thieves
Sneaky travelled to Thyatis. She decided to take up the Guildmaster's offer of being allowed to set up her own Thieves' Guild, under the benevolent wing of the Guildmaster of course. She drew up plans for an underground hideout, accessible by secret doors at the back of a shop that she would use as a cover for her operations. Obviously, it would be some time before this 'shop' was open for business.
The Guildmaster was most helpful with the construction effort - finding a suitable location, providing the workforce to dig out the tunnels making up the hideout (which, coincidentally, was not long after the mysterious disappearance of some slaves from the gladiator pits), and procuring the services of clerics to hide the sound of their digging by means of silence 15' radius spells. It goes without saying that this 'assistance' was by no means free of charge, When the Guildmaster of Thieves in Thyatis shows generosity, expect to be expected to make a return on his generosity.
Sneaky didn't get the chance to see the completion of her hideout. She was given an errand by the Thieves' Guild to take a message to Mazaramus in Glantri. Prototypes of his 'war machine' were being sent, along with a small amount of troops, to Darokin. The militia of Thyatis was prepared to turn a blind eye to certain activities by the Thieves Guild, in return for their assistance in field-testing these new war wagons.
A Taste of Battle
Morgan remained in Ghyr for some time, honing his martial skills with the claymore. Klaus and Gandi stayed with him during this time. Klaus spent most of his time sharing theological ideas with the Patriarch. Gandi just visited the taverns, restoring his blood to a more agreeable level of alcoholic toxicity.
When Morgan completed his weapon training, Queen Leahra used the Heartstone to transport them to Thyatis. They were hoping to meet up with Sneaky, but she had already left. Rollo Bargmann, a now useful contact of theirs in Thyatis, told them that one last detachment of troops was being sent to Darokin. They could sail with the troops in the hope of catching up with Sneaky.
Sneaky was not in Darokin. Once she had arrived, she headed north through the Broken Lands to Glantri to find Mazaramus. The troops that had arrived with her, along with the war wagons, had been sent westwards to assist the main Darokin army. The three were asked by high-ranking officials attached to the Darokin military to join up with the convoy, taking what troops they had. Morgan was given the rank of Commander and appointed to take charge of the reinforcements sent from Thyatis. Gandi was appointed artillerist, to oversee the ballista crews in the war wagons, and Klaus was to be the company chaplain. They accepted, and immediately made their way westwards with the Thyatian troops, crossing Lake Akesoli by boat and then following the trail leading westwards from Akesoli towards the Sind Desert. Previous reinforcements had been sent by sea to Pramayama. However, since hearing of ships disappearing, further reinforcements were taking the landward route. Whether these ships were lost to pirates, enemy ships, sea monsters, foul magics or worse was unknown.
Morgan's convoy made good time, and caught up with the rest of the company just as they were crossing into the Sind Desert. The company now consisted of some eighty troops, led by two sergeants and a captain, with three war wagons and a supply wagon. Each wagon contained two light ballistas and their crew, capable of firing from the wagons themselves through bolt-holes in the wooden shielding.
Taking command of the company, they continued westwards along the trail into the rocky Sind Desert. They soon came to an area where the trail led between some rocky bluffs. Morgan thought this was an ideal place for an ambush, and ordered everyone to be on alert. Gandi volunteered to take some men up the cliffs on the northern side of the trail, and the captain took twenty men up the southern bluff to scout.
Their instincts were correct. Waiting on top of the bluffs were some nomad archers. The captain obeyed Morgan'c command to return to the wagon train in case of any trouble. Gandi was more reckless, charging the archers on the northern side. The archers were dispatched, but not before ten of his men had been slain by arrow fire.
Meanwhile, a group of nomad spearmen came charging at the caravan from around a turn in the trail where the bluffs gave way to rocky desert. Morgan had the lead wagon turn sideways to bring both ballistas to bear on the nomads. They continued charging forwards. Ballista bolts skewed into the group, impaling two of their number. Looking down at their fallen comrades, the nomads turned and fled.
Once Gandi had returned to the main column with what men he had left, they proceeded on along the trail. The southern group of archers had gone to ground, apparently driven off by the captains men. Another narrow ravine led southwards, but they continued westwards. They were barely past the side ravine when they heard the sound of galloping horses approaching. Ten riders with lances came charging towards them from the west, behind them were scores of foot soldiers and a group of gnolls.
two wagons. The soldiers formed a cordon in front of the lead wagon. By the time they had formed up, another group came up from the south, this was comprised of about twenty light foot soldiers, eight bugbears and five large reddish-brown dogs - hellhounds!It was then that they heard the screams coming from the rear wagons. A group of gargoyles had suddenly appeared, as if from nowhere, some inside the wagons and some outside, and began butchering the weapon crews. The cavalry crashed into the ranks of Thyatian soldiers, but they held their ground, bringing down five of them once they had broken the impetus of their charge. The remaining five were ineffective in the close quarters, but they had brought the time for the foot soldiers and gnolls to close in, and a vicious melee ensued.
Morgan took a group of twenty soldiers to hold of those approaching from the rear. Three of the hellhounds roasted the rear wagons with their fire breath. The supply wagon was in flames and the rear war wagon took considerable damage. Morgan struggled to hold off the advancing troops, losing a good number of men, including one of the sergeants, to the flame attacks of the hellhounds.
Gandi abandoned his position as artillerist in the front wagon and ran to the rear of the convoy to fight the gargoyles. Klaus stayed with the main body of soldiers holding the front, assisting with spells to aid the warriors in combat, and disrupting the attack of the nomads by conjuring up snakes amidst their ranks.
Despite being outnumbered, the Thyatian troops gave a good account of themselves. Four ballista crews had been slain and the ballistas utterly destroyed by the gargoyles. Gandi eventually slew all the gargoyles, with some help from Morgan who had fought of those that had attacked his group. Of the soldiers that Morgan had taken to defend the rear, only two remained, though they had managed to slay one of the hellhounds.
It seemed for a moment that they might be able to hold out and drive off their attackers. An ominous grinding noise echoed along the canyon coming from the west. Their foes cautiously backed off. Coming into view they could see what looked to be a huge stone tower, over 30' tall, moving along on a pair of massive stone rollers for wheels.
Morgan ordered the two remaining war wagons to be turned about and they headed back for the narrow ravine that the bugbears and hellhounds had retreated back to. The third war wagon was left behind as the horses pulling it had been slain by hellhounds . As they turned, the lead wagon unleashed a volley of ballista bolts at the advancing juggernaut, but they just bounced off ineffectively.
What was left of the convoy was now in full retreat. Morgan hoped that the abandoned wagon would slow down the juggernaut. As they turned southwards into the narrow ravine, they looked back and saw the juggernaut roll right over the wagon, barely slowing down. Shards and planks of the wagon went flying in all directions and the burnt corpses of the horses were crushed to a pulp.
They headed down the ravine at full speed. The hellhounds and bugbears gave them a wide berth, not wishing to be caught and crushed themselves by the juggernaut. The juggernaut followed, though it was not gaining any ground on them, and eventually it stopped following. With barely 25 soldiers remaining out of the 80 that they started out with, they headed southwards towards the village of Pramayama, hoping to meet up with any remaining Darokinian forces.
Meanwhile in Pramayama
After Sneaky had finally found Mazaramus in Glantri, she received a message, apparently from the Thyatian Thieves' Guild, that had been hidden under a coaster on which her drink had been served in one of the taverns. It told her not to return to Thyatis just yet, but to accompany the wizard. She felt as though she was being played. If the Thieves; Guild could get a message to her all the way from Thyatis to Glantri so quickly, why did she have to make the long journey herself to take the message to Mazaramus?
Mazaramus and Sneaky reached the village of Pramayama on the 22nd of Klarmont (the equivalent of June on the Known World calendar) in the year AC 1002, having travelled from Glantri by broom of flying. The village seemed deserted at first, the villagers having long since left for safer lands. As they approached closer, they found that the wooden walls of the villages were being repaired by soldiers of the Darokin army. Evidently the village had been assaulted by the Master's forces, but had been driven off.
They were greeted by Sarras, sub-commander of the small company that was now garrisoning Pramayama. The main army and even most of the reserves had left some weeks ago, having gone northwards and then west into the Sind Desert to fight the armies of the Master. Little news had been received since, only rumours that the Darokin army had been massacred in an ambush. Sarras was not holding out any hope of further reinforcements arriving. Ships had stopped arriving from the sea via the Asanda River some time ago.
There was little for the two adventurers to do. Sarras said that they were free to walk about the village, and could even help out with repairing the walls if they wanted. Mazaramus pulled three wood golems out of his bag of holding and sent them to help the soldiers with their repairs.
Sneaky talked to some of the soldiers, learning what she could about what might have happened in the Sind Desert. Some of the rumours seemed exaggerated, including the Master's army being made up of undead warriors that continued to rise up and fight after they were slain.
Mazaramus found a ramshackle dwelling near the southern end of the village that had not been deserted. From it came occasional deranged howls and screams. He ventured in. A bedraggled man with an unkempt beard saw him enter. He rushed towards Mazaramus waving a sheet of paper and yelling "You have come! It was foretold that you would be are saviours! Here! It is written!" He then dropped the parchment and ran to the back of the room, jumping onto a bed, curling up with his hands covering his head.
Mazaramus picked up the parchment. It was covered in magical runes, apparently a spell scroll. It was unlikely that this strange man had been able to read them. Mazaramus cast a read magic spell. It was a scroll with the spell contact outer plane. No wonder the guy had gone mad. He stuffed the scroll into a pouch for transcribing later into his spell book.
The madman ran up to him again, grabbed him by the soldiers and stared into him saying "the eyes of those not near can see". This continued for some time, the madman uttering gibberish interspersed with cryptic messages, then running around trying to hide under the bed or catch scorpions to eat. The few words that made any kind of sense at all were "Beware the Malakaz of the swamp" and "seek the lost gate that scorpions guard".
Mazaramus eventually decided to leave the poor man to his mad ramblings. Towards late evening, one of the soldiers on the wall called out that something was approaching. Sneaky and Mazaramus went to investigate. Dust, as if a number of men were moving down the trail towards the village, could be seen a few miles off to the north. Mazaramus took to his broom of flying to take a closer look.
About two dozen soldiers, somewhat battle worn and weary-looking, were moving down the trail. Two wagons were being pulled along by horses. One was reinforced with wooden plates. The other was somewhat blackened and scorched. Leading the convoy were Morgan, Klaus and Gandi.
As they approached, some of the soldiers on the walls gave a cheer, but their hopes dimmed once they saw the state of the 'reinforcements'. Sarras had fresh food and water brought for the men and assigned buildings where they could take rest. He then went to Morgan to learn what had happened.
Sarras discovered that were it not for the fact that he was leading Thyatian troops, not Darokinian, Morgan would actually outrank Sarras. Sarras led Morgan to the commander of the outpost to discuss matters further. Morgan was apprised of the overall situation/ The ambush that they had escaped from sounded similar to the one that the main Darokin army had fallen into. They agreed that no further forces were to be sent into the desert. Any remaining forces, including stragglers and any that escaped the battles with the Master's army, were to consolidate at Pramayama where they could at least try to fortify their position and hopefully prevent an invasion into the Republic of Darokin.
Night of the Soul Eater
Night had fallen. Gandi, Klaus and Sneaky had gone to the walls to help keep a lookout. It was just after midnight when they saw a strange sight about a hundred yards outside the village walls. An armoured man was frantically battling some all-but invisible creature. Gandi with his infravision saw that the man was fighting an amorphous cold entity hovering above the ground. The three ran out to help.They could now see that the creature was a large black cloud-like shape with clawed hands reaching out from it. Gandi hacked at it with his axes, and Klaus tried to interpose himself between the creature and the beleaguered armoured figure. The creature simply moved through Klaus. The numbing coldness from the creature forced Klaus back, and it continued to rake at the man. Each time it struck, the man screamed in agony.
It was then that a golden figure came swooping in as if from nowhere. An elf borne on golden dragon wings swung at the black foulness with a sword, the blade of which seemed to glow with a blood red hue about its edge. The claws retracted back into the cloud, and the blackness seemed to shrink until disappearing into nothing, shrieking horribly as it did so.
The elf alighted, and the wings folded back and disappeared. They barely recognised him. It was Lithanor, now wearing about his brow a circlet set with a blue gem. Klaus ran to help the armoured figure, who was severely wounded and exhausted, his lips dry from thirst, and his armour caked in desert sand. Klaus noticed that he bore a holy symbol in the form of a radiating sun. He didn't recognise it, but judged it to be of a lawful faith. They helped the man, whose name they discovered was Guillaume, back to the stockade, where Klaus administered some vitally needed healing.
After his ordeal, Guillaume was exhausted, so they found a bed for him in one of the dwellings near the commander's hut. Any questions would have to wait until morning. They turned their attention back to Lithanor. He told them about his recent adventure and his battle with the red dragon Khordarg, and introduced the party members to Scorbane.
After defeating Khordarg and saving the Emerlas, he had travelled to Glantri to study the ways of the 2nd Circle of Dracology, hence the dragon wings. Aurena, a gold dragon and Lithanor's mentor, had flown him as far as she could towards the village of Pramayama. For reasons that are far too involved to go into here, she could not venture too far towards the Sind Desert and had to return to Glantri, leaving Lithanor to continue the rest of the journey on his own.
A New Quest
The following morning, Morgan was called to meeting with the commander. Klaus, Gandi, Sneaky and Lithanor, having been involved in the incident in the night, were also called. Mazaramus wasn't invited, but that didn't stop him from being present under cover of an invisibility spell. Sarras and Guillaume, now slightly recovered from his ordeal, were also present.
First of all, the commander thanked them for saving Guillaume. They learnt that he was a cleric of a new faith that had arisen in Glantri (which kind of explains why he has a French name), since Stephen Amber had repealed the outlawing of clerics and dwarves, in his province at least, if not the whole of Glantri. The cleric was a worshipper of Pellar, the same faith as Klaus. In Glantri, the holy symbol was more like a blazing sun, not an eagle like Klaus'es, and there he was known as Therad (if that's okay with Bruce).
The commander asked if the party were willing to undertake a very important and highly dangerous mission, one that could save Darokin if they were successful. They were to travel in secret across the Sind Desert, seek out the headquarters of the Master's army, and assassinate the Master. Mazaramus piped up. "I see. Cut off the head of the snake and the body will die!" The commander looked at the source of Mazaramus voice and said "Indeed! I hope you put your talents to as much use on this mission as you do on sneaking into this meeting".
Guillaume then stood up. He looked at the party, but his gaze mostly fell on Klaus. "Will you take this quest?" Klaus hesitated. He had wanted to be certain of Guillaume by casting a know alignment spell, but never got the opportunity. Gandi, somewhat impetuously, volunteered "I'll take it", sticking his hand up. Guillaume laid his hands on the dwarf's shoulders and said "I quest you to seek out this Master of the Desert Nomads and destroy him".
DM's note: That's one way to get round a dwarf's resistance to magic. Get him to volunteer and thereby forego any saving throw.
Guillaume then gave the party a rough map that he had sketched, showing the location of the Temple of Death beyond the Black Mountains on the other side of the Sind Desert. The party was reunited, and a new adventure was before them!
Session Two - Up The Asanda
The commander knew that a caravan was travelling along the caravan route through the Sind Desert to Slagovich far in the west. It seemed that the Master's armies had little interest in attacking merchant caravans, they were only targeting military convoys. If they could reach the caravan trail in time, they might be able to join up with this caravan and travel in relative safety for at least part of the way. Sarras had pointed out that the quickest and safest way to reach the caravan trail was by travelling by raft up the Asanda River and across the Salt Swamp. Mazaramus shuddered at this, remembering the madman's cryptic warning; "Beware the Malakaz of the swamp!"
By the time they had finished their preparations for the journey and were preparing to set off, they sighted something flying across the Asanda River and directly towards them. Lithanor, with his keen eyes, saw that it was a wyvern, and was being ridden by three cloaked figures, two of which seemed to be sitting on the wings. As it approached, Lithanor saw the three men raise their hands in unison, as if pointing towards the nearby banks, and a flash of magical energy seemed to emanate from his hands.
Mazaramus launched a fire ball at the wyvern as soon as it was in range. The creature shrieked in agony, and they saw the rider (the other two, being mirror images, as they had guessed, had vanished) now a burning and blackened corpse, plummet into the water with a hiss as the waters quenched the flames of his burning carcass.
Before they had time to react, three trolls burst from the nearby reeds, rushing at the party with lightning speed. They were barely able to turn to face them before they were upon them. Sneaky had been lurking nearby, already invisible thanks to Mazaramus spell cast earlier in the day. She caught one of the trolls with her daggers, slicing its spine open and the troll dropped in a heap. While Morgan, Klaus, Gandi and Lithanor fought the other two, she got out her tinder box to ignite the troll she had slain before it could regenerate.
The other two trolls were quickly dispatched, and the wyvern, without the guidance of its rider, had turned tail and flown off westwards. The attack had been thwarted. They guessed that this group was sent to attack the soldiers guarding Pramayama, and was not counting on the party being there to drive them off.
Mazaramus wondered if the mage who had been riding the wyvern had any useful magic items. Although the river wasn't very deep, the bottom was covered with reeds and could easily hide the fallen body. He took Sneaky with him on his broom of flying to search the area where they had seen him fall. Sneaky used her ring of x-ray vision to good effect, and soon found the skeletal image of his body beneath the reeds. Mazaramus wasn't sure whether the broom could 'fly' underwater, so he returned to the docks, lending his broom to Sneaky while she flew out with Morgan. Once they found the body again, Morgan used his ring of telekineis to raise the warlock's body out of the river and return ot to shore.
It was indeed worth the effort of retrieving the body. As well as a pouch containing 500 gold pieces, the mage had an amulet in the shape of a skull and a ring, both of which detected as magical. Morgan tried the ring. As soon as he did so, he became aware of the spells that could be cast from it, haste (which had already been cast on the trolls) and lightning bolt. It was a ring of spell storing. Morgan then tried on the amulet. As soon as he placed it on, he seemed to the rest of the party to momentarily go into a trance, before swiftly removing it and stashing it at the bottom of his backpack.
He described how visions had come to him of various things; a huge army of desert nomads and numerous humanoid creatures on the march across the desert, a strange temple filled with people in white or orange robes, and almost total darkness. He had stowed the amulet in his backpack, just in case this 'vision' was two-way, and those he could see could also see them. Mazaramus repeated the words of the madman. "The eyes of those not near can see".
Mazaramus inquired about the ring of spell storing. He was somewhat envious that Morgan now had some spell casting power. He said he could keep it. Had it contained a fire ball spell, he might have been more interested in having it for himself. Lithanor added that lightning bolt could be more useful, and doesn't carry as much risk of blowing your own party up. Scorbane, Lithanor's sword agreed stating that "it was an elegant spell for a more civilised mage, not as clumsy or as random as a fire ball".
While the party was finishing loading their gear and supplies onto the raft, Mazaramus went off to retrieve his wood golems that had been helping out in repairing the walls. He took the opportunity to take the bones of one of the slain trolls and animate them as an undead skeleton. This would not sit well with Klaus, so he cast invisibility on the troll skeleton and had it hide under the raft as they went along.
Shark Beats Crocodile
Finally, they set off. Their guide was Pormas Theocrates, a strange fellow, and the only villager, other than the madman, who had not fled Pramayama. He boldened his spirits by frequently tugging on a tankard of Castellan Fourex, his favourite ale. Pormas instructed the party members as they travelled on the proper way to punt the raft. Their was a fine art to being able to put a long stick in the water and push along with it. Pormas did notice that something was causing the raft to drag a bit, though he put this down to the current being unusually strong for the time of year.
Most of the journey upriver was uneventful. Being attacked by hungry robber flies which proved to be little more than a nuisance. At one point they hit a sand bar. While they were trying to break loose, three giant crabs crawled onto the raft, trying to drag the party into the waters where they could feast on them at their leisure. Lithanor demonstrated another of his draconic powers by summoning up ghostly dragon fangs to attack the crabs. Once they were slain, Lithanor cast a polymorph self spell on himself, entered the water, and transformed into a great white shark in the hope of helping to push the raft off of the sand bar. Pormas had already told them that the water was salty, so Lithanor reasoned that a shark would be alright in the river.
It was then that Lithanor found out why there were no other sharks in the river. A large crocodile launched itself out from where it had been hiding amongst the reeds, eager for a tasty snack. Pormas viewed the fight between the crocodile and the shark aghast. The shark tore into the crocodile, while at the same time, the ghostly dragon fangs nipped at the huge reptile, and soon the crocodile floated lifelessly in the blood-soaked waters.
They finally managed to free the raft from the sand bar. They found it strange that the raft seemed to rise up a few feet out of the water at one end as they were working it free, but this soon righted itself. Mazaramus daren't disclose that his skeleton troll had been lifting the raft.
They considered eating the crabs. Pormas said that this would be a good idea...if they had a large enough pot to boil them in. Besides, the crabs seemed to have disappeared. Presumably they had been thrown over or fell over the side while they were working to free the raft. In actual fact, Mazaramus had animated them as skeletons while they had been busy, and were now also underneath the raft, scuttling along to keep up with them.
The River is being Watched
A few days later they reached a bend in the river. Further along, they could see the smoke of several campfires on both banks of the river. They poled the raft close to the reeds near the southern bank. Meanwhile, Mazaramus made himself invisible and flew up to investigate. On both sides were camps of the Master's armies. On the southern bank were about two dozen humans in nomadic dress milling about several small tents. The northern bank was mostly humanoids, a score of orcs, as well as a few bugbears, led by two humans, both of whom curiously enough had yellowish-orange hair.
They decided to take on the southern group first. Mazaramus wanted to take them out with a well placed fire ball but they were too widely spread out for this to be effective. Gandi had an idea. He would put on Sneaky's ring of fire resistance, enter the camp alone, and try to get them to surround him so that Mazaramus could take out as many of them as possible.
Lithanor cast a haste spell on the party, and Gandi strode into the camp. At once, the nomads all raised their bows and trained their arrows on him. Another man emerged from one of the tents, this one wearing plate mail armour. He drew his sword, and raised it pointing it at Gandi. "So! A spy of the infidels! Drop your weapons". Gandi hesitated, so he gave the order to fire. Mazaramus complied, launching his fire ball and incinerating many of the archers. The armoured fighter lunged at Gandi, but the dwarf was too fast and hacked him down with his axes. Morgan and Klaus leapt into the fray, with Lithanor giving covering fire, and the remaining archers were soon butchered.
They quickly searched the bodies, and Morgan used his claymore to detect for magic. The armoured warrior was wearing a magical girdle. Lithanor took this. Trying it on, he seemed to gain enormous strength. It was a girdle of giant strength. He gave his potion of giant strength that he had recovered from Khordarg's lair to Gandi, knowing that it was now superfluous as far as he was concerned.
By now, the orcs on the other side of the river were firing arrows at them, having seen the glare from Mazaramus' fire ball. Lithanor called forth his gold dragon wings and began flying across the river. Mazaramus and Gandi followed on the broom of flying.
As soon as they reached the other camp, Lithanor cast a sleep spell, sending a number of orcs into a slumber. Mazaramus transformed himself into a hydra using a polymorph self spell. The bugbears charged at the three, followed by the orcs. The two men they had seen bent down, running forward on all fours as they shape-changed into tigers. they were the first to be ripped apart by the ferocious heads of Mazaramus' hydra heads. Lithanor sliced through three bugbears and severely wounded a fourth as they closed for combat.
The three fought through the camp, felling orcs and bugbears with merciless rapidity. A few orcs tried to flee the carnage, but were caught and slain by Lithanor's swords, Gandi axes or the reptilian heads of the wizard. Morgan, Klaus and Sneaky had finally arrived from the other bank, having to pole across, but by the time they got there it was all over.
The two camps that they had slaughtered represented but a tiny fraction of the Master's armies. Still, it felt good for them to give them a taste of what they had wrought on the armies of Darokin. They jouneyed on along the Asanda River. Within a few days they would be entering the Salt Swamp. Mazaramus was still feeling somewhat apprehensive. What in the Nine Hells was a Malakaz?
Session Three - The Malakaz
A few days later they entered the Salt Swamp. The air was quite hot and humid. The area was mostly reeds and stunted trees, with occasional bits of rocky ground jutting out of the swamp. The going wasn't too difficult. Pormas Theocrates was a bit apprehensive about going into the swamp. He confessed that he rarely travelled into the swamp, having heard stories of the horrors that lie within. Just in case, he pointed out on their map the general direction they should take should anything happen to him.
Mazaramus had taken the precaution of having his undead troll and crabs keep a good distance to the rear of the raft, still invisible, to avoid being detected by Klaus or Lithanor. He reminded the party about the warning he had been given by the madman. To this end, Klaus cast a speak with plants spell to see if the reeds knew anything about the Malakaz. This was to no avail. Whatever this Malakaz was, the plants had no knowledge of it.
They had been travelling through the swamp for a few days now, heading in a roughly north-westerly direction, and moored up for the night again. Mazaramus had been using his wood golems to keep a watch, but just in case, the party members took turns in keeping watch themselves. Mazaramus was first on watch. A sense of unease kept him awake during his watch. This night, more than any other since they had entered the swamp, he had the feeling that something wasn't quite right. Finishing his watch, he handed over to Gandi. The dwarf and then Morgan kept a constant vigil. Each felt the same creepy apprehension as Mazaramus had about the place. Sneaky followed. Despite having the same sense of unease, she drifted off back to sleep on her watch. Then the dreams came.
Klaus was back at the Caves of Chaos. They had entered the Shrine of Evil Chaos and were now confronting the evil priest and his undead minions in his temple. Behind the priest, the wall had come alive with flowing patterns of red, green and purple. Klaus turned to Lithanor, who was to cast a fire ball at the priest and the undead. With horror, he saw the elf's features had melted away, and lifeless eyes stared at him from a skeletal face with scraps of flesh hanging off.
Klaus turned back to face the priest, who was now laughing maniacally at him. Monstrous tentacles reached out from the swirling colours of the wall behind him, grabbing Klaus before he could do anything else, and slowly and inexorably pulled him towards the ghastly, unearthly vortex.
Klaus awoke in a cold sweat.
Sneaky had ventured off ahead to scout out the unexplored rooms of Castle Amber. Meanwhile her companions were still catching up with her. Opening a door, she found a room in which the floor was covered with a green carpet. Above, the ceiling was a glossy black, and on the opposite side of the room, a grey stone block with a stone lid stood against the wall. She didn't trust the carpet. It was a strange shade and seemed to ripple, almost as if it was alive.
Pulling a small hammer and some pitons from her pack of thieves' tools, she proceeded to cross the room by climbing along the walls. Reaching the stone block with some ease, she reached down to lift the stone lid. Her hands burned as the acid from the gray ooze coating the lid ate into them. Loosing her footing on the pitons, she fell to the floor. Green slime engulfed her legs and spread up her body. Within moments she was almost entirely covered in green slime. Everything she could see was rapidly turning green.
Sneaky awoke in a cold sweat.
Lithanor neared the end of the tunnel, and ahead could be seen the red scales of the great dragon Khordarg. Lithanor was well prepared. His spells that would aid him in his combat were cast. The potion he had found and now drunk made him feel as though his muscles had swollen to giant proportions. On top of this, he was confidant that his knowledge of dracology had enabled him to call upon the power to protect him from the initial dragon attacks. Entering the cave, Lithanor challenged Khordarg, vowing that he had come to put an end to the dragon. Khordarg laughed. "Maybe I cannot harm you lest you break the protection first, but can you protect your kin?"
The dragon turned, and Lithanor saw his cousin Tormalline chained to the far wall. Flames engulfed her, and Lithanor heard her dying, agonised screams. Enraged, Lithanor leapt forward to attack. The dragon was too fast. Khordarg turned to face the elf, his protections now gone. The flames of its fierce, fiery breath closed about him. He fell to the floor. Scorbane went clattering from his grip. Lithanor looked up helplessly as the dragon raised its claw to finish him off.
Lithanor awoke in a cold sweat.
Gandi stumbled drunkenly into the cavern. His comrades were fending off what seemed like hundreds of small bat-like birds with spiky proboscises. He waded in, eager for a good fight, swinging at the stirges with his weapons. He hit a stirge squarely, smashing it against the rock wall with his beer bottle. He looked at his other weapon. That too was a bottle. He shrugged and kept on smashing and slicing at the creatures. Three, four, five of the stirges were brought down by his swings. Then one sank into his arm, driving its proboscis through his armour and into his flesh. As it drank his blood, the stirges' eyes seemed to glaze over and it fell to the floor in a drunken stupor.
Gandi laughed, but was soon cut short as more and more of the creatures dived into him. The cavern seemed to spin and swirl. Weakness from loss of blood overcame him and he fell face first into the mud of the cavern floor.
Gandi awoke in a cold sweat.
Morgan ascended the stairway. Behind him, the wizard was preparing something, but he had no time or patience for him. Several landings were on the stairway, with a pair of crystal statues of some strange bipedal creature standing in an alcove to the either side of these landings. He had almost reached the door at the top of the stairway when he heard roaring flames from behind him. Looking back, he saw some huge thing composed entirely of fire begiining to ascend the stairs after him. He rushed to the door and thrust it open.
He found himself in some large room. Parts of the walls had been bashed away by some monstrous creature and rubble lay strewn about near the walls. Looming above him, he could see a huge purple worm. Morgan raised his claymore and prepared to strike. It was then that he heard the roar of the approaching flames and felt its intense heat. The metal of his armour burnt into his flesh as it began to melt.
Morgan was now between the two creatures, the purple worm and the wizard's fire elemental. He raised his sword again, but this time the heat caused the sword to melt and the metal dripped onto his arms. Writhing in agony, he saw the massive gaping maw of the purple worm lunging down to swallow him.
Morgan awoke in a cold sweat.
From the top of the cathedral of Vyones, Mazaramus could see the Colossus approaching, smashing the rooftops of the street houses as it approached, He mounted his broom to fly out to meet it, taking the dwarf with him. Mazaramus seemed to remember having a dream very similar to this before. He opened the pouch that Gaspard had given him. To his relief, it was the black powder, and not tobacco.
They flew towards the Colossus. As they neared, it swung the tree trunk that it was using as a club. Mazaramus dodged the swing and flew up near to the face of the Colossus. The dwarf threw his pouch, but it exploded harmlessly on its cheek. Mazaramus waited until he was as close as he dared before throwing his pouch. The black powder landed right in the eye and spread. The Colossus dropped the tree trunk and raised its hands to its eyes, then began to fall. Mazaramus watched victoriously as it fell. Then he heard the laughter. Why was it laughing? Nathaire was defeated, his construct destroyed.
Mazaramus realised that he was no longer on the broom, and seemed to be drawn towards the Colossus. He saw above him his own body, seemingly lifeless or in some kind of trance sitting on the broom, with the dwarf frantically trying to shake him awake.
Now Mazaramus was falling to his knees. He reached out, grabbing the rooftops of the tiny buildings below him to steady himself, and he knew that his body was dying. He was now the Colossus! He heard the laughter again. Finding the strength to look up, he saw himself, or rather Nathaire now in his old body, laughing and flying away.
Mazaramus awoke in a cold sweat.
The six companions stared at each other, quickly realising that they had all had some terrible nightmare. Their guide, Pormas Theocrates, seemed to have fared even worse. He was in an almost frantic state, staring at the party as if he didn't recognise them. Klaus went to reassure him and some sense and reason seemed to return to him. He looked about the swamp with a terrified expression. They decided it was time to press on, but when they handed him the pole, he just stared at it as if he didn;t know what to do with it, so Gandi took over with punting the raft.
Soon they came across an area where the reeds and plants were thicker, almost as if they were forming a wall. Mazaramus flew over the reeds while the rest of the group punted through the reeds. Beyond, the reeds and rocks seemed to form a ring enclosing a circular area about a hundred yards across. In the centre of this area, suspended above the water of the swamp by wooden stilts, was a wooden hut. He flew closer. The hut had only a single entrance and no windows. Inside was just a bare cramped space, about 10' square. By now, Lithanor had joined him, having conjured up his dragon wings and flown over the reeds himself.
They checked the hut to see if there were any secret compartments. They found nothing. It seemed odd that this hut was here, seeming to have no purpose and no sign of any occupants. Mazaramus flew across to the opposite side of the reed circle. As he did so, he launched a fire ball at the reeds to clear a way for the raft to follow easily, somewhat to the annoyance of Klaus who thought this wholly unnecessary.
Mazaramus continued to fly away from the vicinity of the hut. Some time later, after about a mile or so, Mazaramus came to another thick wall of reeds. He flew over this and found himself back at the wooden hut, with the party still waiting on the raft near it. He was sure that he had flown in a straight line. There was no way he had flown in a large circle.
Morgan used his claymore to detect for magic. The entire area radiated magic, with the hut emanating the strongest magic. The green glow normally given off by this power seemed distorted somehow, the greenish tinge being a somewhat sickly colour and seemed to fluctuate in waves, causing a disorienting effect. They came to the conclusion that the hut was the source of whatever was preventing them from leaving.
Mazaramus called upon his runic powers to remove the wooden poles holding the hut up. It collapsed into the swampy water. Morgan used another detect magic. The emanations were as strong as before. Apparently, the hut needed to be completely destroyed. Lithanor assaulted it with a barrage of flaming arrows, magic missiles and even an ice storm spell. The hut was indeed showing signs of damage. Mazaramus followed this up by pouring oil over the hut, having the party back off to a safe distance, and hitting it with a fire ball. The hut blazed, and the charred wooden slats of the hut fell into the water, hissing as they did so. Confidant that they had destroyed it, Morgan used his last detect magic. The area around them and where the hut had stood still radiated magic. It had not abated in the slightest.
They took their chances and poled off anyway. As they travelled, Lithanor had the strange feeling that something was following them. Whatever it was, it always seemed behind them, turning when they turned, stopping when they stopped. A few hours later they arrived back at the area of the hut. The hut inside the ring of reeds was completely intact and standing upright. They tried again, this time heading westwards, but once again found themselves back at the hut.
By now, night was falling. Mazaramus resolved to memorise a contact outer plane spell in the morning to find a way out of their predicament. This was with some reluctance. After the nightmares of the previous night, it was evident that this mysterious area was the source of the nightmares and the growing feeling of unease. The spell itself also carried some risk. Sending one's mind out into the astral realms, especially without adequate preparation, was known to leave a wizard using this spell in a state of hopeless insanity.
As an extra precaution, they poled the raft some distance away from the hut before they slept. They had the nightmares yet again. This time, Pormas did not wake up. They tried to rouse him, but to no avail. Klaus found that he was not asleep. His body was limp and lifeless despite the fact that he was still breathing. He tried to open his eyes. They just stared back blankly. Something had taken the poor man's mind/ Sneaky looked over at Pormas and realised with a shiver that if they did not escape this area soon, they would all suffer the same fate as Pormas.
Gandi remembered the green heartstone that he still had. He approached Pormas and laid the heartstone on his chest. The gem pulsed with green light. Pormas begin to stir, and life returned to his eyes. He looked about, more horrified than before, but Klaus calmed him with a remove fear spell. They breathed a sigh of relief. At least they had some way of fending off the attacks of whatever inhabited this swamp, at least for the time being.
Mazaramus prepared his spell. This was unlike any spell he had cast before. At the culmination of his incantations, he sat cross-legged on the raft, his head fell forward, and he swayed strangely from side to side. Morgan and Sneaky saw only the mage, their surroundings, the swamp, the raft, the other party members, everything, seemed to disappear from their vision. A sibilant whispering entered their minds.
"The wizard has led you to your doom. Kill him now. It is the only way you can escape"
Having limited psychic powers, Morgan and Sneaky realised that whatever entity inhabited this swamp had used this as a means of telepathically contacting them. Whatever Mazaramus was up to threatened this being, and both Morgan and Sneaky knew this.
Mazaramus saw stars and other strange celestial bodies pass by him as his mind journeyed across the astral realms. Soon, a golden sphere loomed up close to him. He found himself being engulfed by the sphere. The next thing he was surrounded by golden light. A strange silvery shape approached. It was almost formless, as if a silvery pulsating blob hovered before him.
"Ask your questions, brave traveller."
Mazaramus asked the form about the Malakaz; what it was, whether the thing stopping them from escaping the swamp was the Malakaz, and how they could defeat it and escape.
He learn't that that the area around the hut was indeed the Malakaz. An evil, female elf of great power had mortally died there, but her evil spirit and essence remained, trapping all who enter her area and feeding off of their mental energy. They could not kill it, but Klaus had the means to allow them to escape.
Mazaramus also asked who the Master of the Desert Nomads was. The entity told him that it was forbidden to tell him. Mazaramus had also prepared a couple of 'test; questions to check the veracity of whatever answered his questions. He severely underestimated the intelligence of the being before him, not to mention its honesty.
"Your quest is of great importance to us. It is vital that you succeed. Return now."
On the raft, they saw Mazaramus begin to stir. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and looked up at the party. His red eyes seemed to glow more intensely than ever. He smiled and said "I have the answer! The trees are made of chocolate"
Moments later, his face became grave. He stood up. "Don't worry. I'm fine. The experience was a bit...strange" He then told the party what he had learn't, including Klaus having the means of their salvation.
Klaus looked through his scrolls, finding one that had a dispel evil spell on it. They returned to the hut (not as if they had any choice). There Klaus cast the spell centering it on the hut.Almost immediately, they felt something different, as if the air had cleared and the oppressiveness of the place had lifted. Sneaky and Morgan heard a distant agonised, whispering scream that quickly receded into silence.
Without hesitation, they poled the raft as quickly as they could away from the area. Hours passed, and they were relieved to find themselves in unfamiliar parts of the swamp. Even being attacked bya giant leech (apparently a mutation or adapted to the saltiness of the swamp) was welcomed as a sign of normality.
Finally, they reached the head of the Salt Swamp. The water was too shallow to travel any further by raft. Pormas pointed out that they should soon reach the Sind Desert without getting their feet too wet. Before saying his farewell to the party, Klaus blessed him with the light of Pellar, and Mazaramus cast an invisibility spell on him for additional protection. Pormas bravely punted back through the swamp back towards Pramayama. The party watched him go, and hoped that the Gods were with him.
Before long, they were out of the swamp completely and into the broken, rocky ground of the Sind Desert. They climbed an area of high ground and saw beneath them, stretching as far as the eye could see to the east and west, a trail in the sand made by the frequent passage of numerous caravans. Far to the east, Lithanor could see something moving along the trail. Mazaramus flew out to see what the shape was (under cover of invisibility). It was a merchant caravan, with several armed guards.
Mazaramus returned to the party and reported what he had seen. They agreed to make themselves known to the caravan, hoping that they were friendly and not on the side of the Master's army, but as a precaution they would not reveal their real names or their mission.
The caravan approached, and the party hailed them. Several mounted guards came forward, and with one man clad in plate mail riding some distance ahead. He stopped some distance from the party and hailed them. When it became apparent that the party meant them no harm, the rider approached closer. He introduced himself as Ahmed Khel, in charge of the escort taking the merchant Surna Lamshar to Slagovich in the west. Whatever business the party had was their own affair as far as he was concerned. They were welcome to join the caravan if they were willing to help defend it should they be attacked. The party agreed, and joined the caravan, at least for the time being.
Session Four - The Buried Temple
The party got the opportunity to prove their mettle to the caravan and Ahmed Khel a couple of days later when a band of a hundred or so desert bandits made an ill-fated attack on the caravan. The bandits were not expecting the caravan to be protected by two potent spell-casters. Furthermore, they had advance warning of their approach when Mazaramus flew out and spotted the approaching bandits. The wizard gave them a little incentive by fire balling a good many of their number, though he was lucky to escape when the bandits returned fire with volleys from their shortbows. He had also learnt that their leader had some magical horn that created a deafening blast that had almost blwon him from his broom of flying.
The bandits were either desperate or eager for vengeance upon the wizard, for the continued their attack despite being discovered, This was a huge mistake, and they were wiped out to a man with the loss of only five of the caravan guards. Morgan took the horn that the leader had been using, discovering this to be a horn of blasting.
The merchants, Surna Lamshar and Ahmed Khel considered themselves blessed that they had stumbled across the party, and heaped enormous praises on them for their bravery in the attack. Even the red-eyes of the wizard were overlooked, seeing this as a gift from the gods instead of a curse. Mazaramus seemed to be scarcely around, having taken whatever opportunity he could to fly back to the battle site to animate more skeletons for his little undead army.
A coupe of days later, the caravan found the lost oasis. Surna Lamshar pointed out that they were indeed lucky to find this. Sometimes it is hidden by the sand, and sometimes the oasis is dry. This time they were in luck. They made camp and began preparing a feast to celebrate their luck.
Later on,the party members were invited to take part in the feast. After drinking a thick, syrupy coffee, they were treated to greasy camel meat with rice, followed by green dates, Although enjoyable, Lithanor was not used to such a rich meal. By the time night had fallen, Lithanor was suffering with stomach cramps that were keeping him awake.
Lithanor tried to walk this off, now wanting to wake the cleric for an ailment that could be both minor and temporary. As a result, he was the only member of the camp that spotted the strange flying creature enter the camp, something about the size of a large house cat, though looking more like some kind of ginger-haired monkey with bat wings.
Lithanor cast a polymorph self spell, transformed into a ginger cat (he had not seen the colour of the creature's fur yet, so this choice was a coincidence) and ran towards where he had seen the creature. He found himself near to where his companions had been camped when he saw the creature flying off again. This time it was carrying what looked to be a broom. Lithanor gave chase, inadvertently waking Klaus as he pounced across him. Klaus looked around, somewhat bemused after he had felt the cat's paws on his face. He saw the cat running away from the camp and decided to awaken the rest of the party. Mazaramus was extremely annoyed when he found that his broom of flying was missing.
Lithanor continued pursuing the flying creature. Whatever it was, it had left the camp and was getting away. Lithanor transformed into a griffon and took to the air. He saw the creature some distance off, but it was ducking in and out of rocky crevices and was difficult to keep track off. After some distance, he came to a ravine about a hundred yards wide. He thought he had last the creature, but at the last he caught a glimpse of it heading into the ravine. After a few hundred yards, he found what seemed to be some long forgotten ruins amidst the sand and rocks. Several pillars, mostly broken and crumbling, jutted out of the sand, and beyond this, on the other side of an open area was an opening in the cliff wall where the ravine ended.
Lithanor landed near the pillars, changing back into his elven form. The pillars had skeletons fixed to them by spikes. They were wearing ancient rusty armour and holding rusty weapons. Lithanor kept an eye on them as he advanced along the row of pillars, but they did not animate. Reaching the open area before the cliff face, he proceeded towards the opening, some kind of archway, that he had seen, About halfway across the open area, he plummeted into an area of soft sand up to his waist.To make matters worse, a large snake, a pit viper was lurking in the sand. It quickly struck at him, leaving him with a nasty bite, but Lithanor was able to push the snake off before it could inject him with poison. He waded through the sand to climb out again. Again the snake struck, but this time his armour saved him. Finally, he climbed out. The snake did not follow, but vanished back into the sand. Lithanor cast a phantasmal force spell to create the illusion of a pig to lure the snake out again. The viper lunged at the illusory pig, and Lithanor sliced through the snake with Scorbane and the snake lay lifeless in the sand.
His polymorph self spell had expired, so Lithanor used his Dragon Wing ability to cross the pit. In the distance behind him, the rest of the party had just reached the end of the ravine, and saw the golden wings of the elf as he entered the dark opening. Lithanor entered what seemed to be some kind of antechamber, 20' deep and 50' wide. Directly opposite, some stairs led downwards. To either side of these stairs, stood upright against the walls, were some sarcophagi, two to the left and one to the right. Where a fourth sarcophagus would have stood, the wall had partially collapsed, leaving a pile of rubble. Lithanor ignored the sarcophagi and headed down the stairs.
The stairs led down into a long columned hallway. At the bottom of the stairs, to either side, were a pair of sphinx statues. As soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs, one of the statues animated and attacked. It was an amber golem! He drew both of his longswords, Scorbane in one hand and the ancient enchanted blade he had taken from the wight in the Caves of Chaos in the other, ready to fight.
Lithanor had fought amber golems before, though usually with his comrades fighting alongside him. The last time he had fought a golem on his own was back in Castle Amber, when he had been severely wounded by the bone golem, and only Klaus' timely intervention had saved him from the skeletons that were about to leap in to finish him off.
The amber golem proved a surprisingly tough opponent. Lithanor finally managed to slay it, but had been once again severely wounded by the claws and fangs of the construct. Only his quick reflexes had saved him from the most telling blows of the beast.
The golem lay slain before him, and when the rest of the party finally caught up to him, he was staggering from his wounds, blood dripping from the many wounds where he had been raked by the golem's claws and the deep bite wound in his shoulder. Klaus brought him back to a better state of health with his clerical magic and the staff of healing. As he did so, he admonished him for his foolhardiness for venturing off alone.
Mazaramus entered the columned hallway, still seething over the theft of his broom of flying. He cast a locate object spell. The broom was indeed within range, indicated to be in the direction of the far end of the hallway. He rushed to the far end, ignoring the strange statue of a vulture headed man that stood there. Beyond was just a solid wall. He drew his wand of secret door detection and activated it. As he expected, it indicated that there was a secret door in the wall. Without hesitation, he opened the secret door and went through.
The secret door led into a 30' square room. A rough tunnel led from the room on the far left side. On the wall opposite, he could see a large mirror, obviously magical as the scene in the mirror was of a wall furnished room. Standing before the mirror was a robed vulture headed figure. He had just handed a broom to the black armoured figure standing in the mirror. Beside this vulture man was a small, orange-furred monkey-like creature with bat-like wings.
The armoured figure (whose face could not be seen due to the visored helmet he was wearing) stared at Mazaramus. The vulture creature turned to Mazaramus. The wizard demanded that he return his broom. The vulture creature responded "It is obvious that you are a mage of great power. I have no quarry with you." Mazaramus repeated his demand. The vulture creature, which Mazaramus subsequently learnt was a creature called a Nagpa, and was known as Abatu, informed him that the mirror of sending only worked one way and there was know no way to retrieve it.
Before they continued, Abatu turned to the figure in the mirror, explained that he wanted to converse with the wizard, bowed and drew some black drapes over the mirror. He turned back to Mazaramus. What followed was a discourse on how the Nagpa, and other unworldly creatures, had managed to come through a rift between dimensions and into the Known World. Seven portals were known to exist in the Known World, each of which, if opened, could allow the rift between worlds to be opened. One was inadvertently opened by a powerful wizard, and although this was successfully closed again, it was open long enough for Abatu to come through and find a second gate, here at the Buried Temple. He confirmed that the armoured figure in the mirror was indeed The Master, and that he had an alliance with him, purely because their plans worked in each other's favour. He invited Mazaramus to join him in helping to find the other portals. In return he would teach him the secrets of the Nagpa, and offered him a place of high importance once his kind had invaded and conquered their world.
Mazaramus went along with this deal. Sneaky, listening to the two discussing and plotting, held the rapier, ready to strike, wondering whether to slay the Nagpa first or Mazaramus.
Mazaramus also learnt from this discussion about the fifth dimension, also known as the Dimension of Nightmares. Through his studies of the spells dimension door and teleport, he already knew about the fourth dimension, through which most mortal magic operates and is used as a conduit for transportation using these spells. The fifth dimension he had only heard of. as had many other mages, as vague rumours.
Abatu was about to seal the deal and make a pact with Mazaramus when Sneaky, sickened by what she had heard, struck into Abatu with her poisoned blades. Lithanor followed suit. Abatu reeled, barely surviving the strikes of the invisible assailants. He began running towards the tunnel leading from the room, but Mazaramus reluctantly finished him off with his staff. The ginger ape-bat creature (which Mazaramus had learnt was called a Tabi), clawed at Sneaky and tried to fly off through the tunnel, but Lithanor incinerated it with a lightning bolt.
Morgan, Klaus and Gandi returned to the room, having heard the sounds of fighting, but it was all over. Mazaramus was somewhat annoyed that Sneaky and Lithanor had interrupted his conversation with Abatu, claiming that he was about to learn a great deal of useful information. Sneaky eyed Mazaramus with skepticism, not sure whether he really would have made a pact with the evil and otherworldly Nagpa.
They searched the room they were in, as well as the columned hallway. A door off to the side led from the hallway, but they ignored this for now. The statue of the nagpa was evidently quite valuable, and could be removed from its plinth, so Mazaramus had his wood golems put it in the bag of holding with them. They examined the mirror, but it now just showed a grey mist, and was so firmly mounted into the wall that any attempts to remove it would quite likely break it. They ventured on along the tunnel, which was found to open up into a strange cavern. At the south-western end was a pool of slightly murky water. At the eastern end, a hole in the cavern floor, from which came a nauseating stench, led into the depths of the earth. Littered about the cavern floor were rocks, boulders, and a number of bones.
Mazaramus searched the Nagpa, finding a few gems and a couple of notes, which he would peruse later. He cast a detect magic spell, but this revealed nothing, so he rushed to catch up with the rest of the party in the cavern.
The party were examining the pool, but found nothing unusual about it. As Mazaramus entered, his detect magic spell revealed a spike driven into a large human skull that was lying amongst the bones.
Mazaramus pulled the spike out.
The man-scorpion bellowed "Ha, mortals! You have freed me! Flee for your lives!"
They didn't need telling twice. They fled back through the room where they had encountered the Nagpa just as huge boulders came crashing behind them, blocking the tunnel. Running out along the columned hall, they carried on up the stairs and out into open. Behind them, they could see dust billowing up the stairs. The area continued shaking for a few more minutes before subsiding.
Mazaramus remembered the side door in the columned hallway and cursed at not having had the chance to explore this. They ventured back inside. Although blocks of stone had fallen in the columned hallway, it was not blocked, and the door was still accessible. They tried the secret door leading to the Nagpa's chamber, but it was evident that it was completely blocked on the other side.
On the other side of the door was a small room, 30' wide and 20' across. Various bits of crumbling furniture, broken statues and other bits and pieces littered the room. Another door led from the room on the western side. Mazaramus wanted to sift through the junk to see if their was anything useful, but the rest of the party hastened on through the far door. This led to another small room, this one dominated by two sarcophagi lying on a plinth in the centre of the room. Writings were carved about the base of each sarcophagi. Rather than take the time to decipher these writings, they chose instead to open one of the sarcophagi.
A bandaged, mummified corpse arose, pushing the lid of the sarcophagus clean off. At the same time, the second sarcophagus opened, and a second mummy emerged. Morgan, Sneaky and Mazaramus stood transfixed, horrified with fear at the sight of these undead monstrosities.
Klaus stepped forward and boldy presented his holy symbol of Pellar. One of the mummies instantly crumbled to dust. Lithanor and Gandi hewed and hacked at the second one with a series of deadly blows that would have felled most foes. However, their blows seemed less effective against the bindings. The mummy clumsily struck out at Lithanor, but the elf nimbly dodged out of its reach, and the two were finally able to hack the mummy to pieces.
With the undead slain, Mazaramus, Morgan and Sneaky returned to their senses, overcoming the unnatural fear that had held them paralyzed. Searching the sarcophagi, they found a number of gems lining the insides. At the bottom of each was a strange ceramic cask found to contain some kind of liquid. Gandi tasted the liquid inside one of them and found himself a little revitalised. Mazaramus tested it. The effects on him were more noticeable, and for a brief instant felt very youthful. They were potions of longevity. Mazaramus was elated, and chose to keep these for himself, considering it fair compensation for losing his broom of flying.
They returned to the anteroom and gave this a more thorough search. Some urns contained some particularly pungent sludge, so nauseating that the stench affected everyone on the room as soon as they were opened, so they left them stoppered up. Mazaramus found a few old scrolls in the corner. The writings on them were in some ancient text, requiring Sneaky's skills of deciphering to read them. They told of how the former worshipper's at this temple venerated a benign scorpion-man that was claimed to have been sent by the gods to guard the gate and prevent untold horrors from breaking through.
With seemingly nothing more of interest in the Buried Temple, they returned to the surface. They even investigated the upright sarcophagi in the first room, but these just contained long dead mummified bodies (not undead) and nothing else of interest. They could not help the feeling, however; that something lurked nearby, and every now and then they could hear a clattering sound carried on the desert wind from somewhere nearby.
Mazaramus remembered the notes that he had retrieved from the Nagpa. One read "Someone has driven off the Malakaz. Learn who this is and report it to me". Another read "Some scout groups have been annihilated. Rumours of a wizard riding a flying broom and hurling fire are all that is known. Retrieve the broom and send it to me".
Mazaramus vowed that he would make this Master pay for stealing from him!
Session Five - Lost in the Desert
A few days later the caravan trail turned southwards. The party decided at this point to head into the Plain of Fire, heading in a more north-westerly direction. Once they head left the trail they had little to give them any clue as to which direction they were headed in, and it took them several days to realise that the sun was rising and setting in the wrong place.
They had been provided with a horse each by Surna Lamshar. These had been recovered from the bandits that had made the ill-fated attack on the caravan days earlier. A couple of days after they had left the trail, there had been a sudden downpour of rain, a rare occurrence in the Sind Desert. This had left the sand somewhat boggy and the air particularly humid. It had also brought a desert hydra to the surface. Although the party members and the horses were invisible, it had sensed the vibrations of their movement. As it burst from the sand, it grabbed two of the horses in its jaws, killing them and throwing the riders. They soon slew the hydra, and found in the cave submerged beneath the wet sand the skeleton of one of its previous victims, along with a sack of treasure and a map showing the route to a location near the Black Mountains, a fortuitous if not enigmatic find.
Mazaramus had managed to create a telescope using his runic powers, and they were travelling through a shallow gorge when they spotted a couple of basilisks up ahead. Luckily, they were facing away from the party when they spied them, saving them from being petrified by their gaze, and Mazaramus promptly fire balled them, burning them both to a crisp. Mazaramus had hoped to collect parts of the basilisks for spell research and components, but his fire ball had left little that could be of any use.
The gulley near the basilisks was riddled with openings that seemed to lead into a network of narrow tunnels. They guessed that this warren may contain more basilisks. Lithanor had given Mazaramus his old wand of fire balls, and he aimed this down one of the tunnels. The wand glowed fiery red as the last charge of the wand was used up. The wand turned to ash and disintegrated in his hand, Some distance in the tunnel, flames billowed forth, and Mazaramus ducked just in time, avoiding the back-blast of the fire ball as it swept through the tunnels. Gouts of flame erupted from the other nearby openings too. If their were any more basilisks in the tunnels, they would have been totally immolated.
Lithanor cancelled his invisibility spell, somehow seeing it to be more of a hindrance than anything else. The party members being unable to see each other did not sit well with him, no matter what advantages it provided on such a covert mission. He then scouted ahead of the main party. Shortly after leaving the gulley where they had encountered the basilisks, he saw a lone man waiting in the shade of the rocks. It was apparent that the man wasn't hostile. The rest of the party decided to come out of hiding and reveal themselves. The man laid his weapons before him.and indicated for the party to do the same. They complied. Satisfied that the party was non-belligerent, he led them into the dervish camp. There they were met by Talel el Haraidhin, the leader of the dervishes/
After verifying that the party was not hostile by using a detect evil spell (and insisting that Klaus do the same), Talel explained that he had been tasked by his deity to find the party in order to aid them with some valuable information. He had tried to find them earlier, but this had not been possible as the party had remained invisible whilst they had been on scouting patrols with the caravan.
First of all, he pointed out that they were heading in the wrong direction. They were actually several hundred miles south of where they thought they were. After discovering this, Mazaramus made use of a fly spell (being deprived of his broom of flying) on a daily basis to get a better fix on their bearings. He told them of the fate of the Republican Army. It had been completely wiped out by the armies of the Master when it was led into a trap. When the party told him of their quest, he pointed out that they should seek the Great Pass, near the entrance of which is believed to be a monastery. The Great Pass is the only way of passing through the Black Mountains, beyond which lies the land of Hule, ruled by The Master.
After providing the party with the hospitality of the camp, including a modest yet tasteful feast, Talel told the party that he would commune with his deity to see what further help he could provide. In the morning, he told them to seek out the following, first a land where terror sleeps beneath the earth. This they had already encountered - the hydra where they had recovered the partial map showing the location of the Great Pass. The second thing they should seek is four strong men who cannot move, and finally a man who is not a man.
Talel also warned them about the amulets that the Master uses to see through. Morgan had widely kept the amulet that they had obtained in Pramayama in the bottom of his back pack. Talel told him to keep it hidden (or even better, destroy it) and on no account attempt to use it. Evil was already following the party, though the nature of this evil was unclear.
Leaving the dervish camp, the party headed directly northwards in order to get back on track. Their rations had by now run out, including Lithanor's mushrooms of sustenance Even Mazaramus' bag of unending nourishment couldn't feed the entire party. They were now dependent on Klaus' create food spells for their survival.
It was after over a week after leaving the dervishes and travelling through the harsh desert when the party ran into the Army of the Master. At first, it seemed as if a huge cloud was moving across the desert towards them. By the time they realised what it was, it was too late to avoid it. Luckily, they found a small cave in a ravine in which they could hide. The army stopped and made camp all around where they were hiding.
The party were once again covered by invisibility spells, and Sneaky took advantage of this to take a quick scout around. A few warriors were camped near the ravine, but she easily slipped past them. Surveying the scene, she saw that the army had camped in several large groups dotted about over a vast area of the desert about them. In the distance, atop a low rise, she could see some tower like structure, with a group of soldiers nearby. She returned to the party to report what she had seen.
Mazaramus guessed that the tower-like structure she had seen was a juggernaut, going on the description that Morgan had given him of the monstrous construct that had crushed the war wagons of his convoy several weeks earlier. He cast a polymorph self spell on himself and made himself invisible again. Turning himself into a griffon, he flew off towards the juggernaut encampment. Sneaky followed on one of the riding horses. After a few moments, Lithanor decided to follow suit, silently slinking into the camp on his own. Morgan, Klaus and Gandi remained in the cave with the rest of the horses.
Lithanor soon came across a hill giant stumbling along with a horse under its arm. Lithanor spied a large pouch at the giant's belt, bulging with coins. Lithanor attempted to lift the pouch, but without the skills that Sneaky had, his attempt was clumsy and alerted the giant to the theft. Abandoning the stealthy approach, Lithanor drew Scorbane and hacked the giant down. Nearby, camps of the Master's armies paid little head to the fight, assuming that this kind of brawling and in-fighting goes on all the time.
Mazaramus had reached the juggernaut camp slightly ahead of Sneaky, who had left her horse near the bottom of the rise in the rocky desert and ascended on foot. Mazaramus approached the juggernaut and attempted to invoke his runic powers to shape the wood of the juggernaut. Yes, the one Morgan had told him about was composed of stone/ This one must be a wooden variant. His first attempt was unsuccessful, so he tried again. However, the juggernaut now seemed to be aware of him and was rotating to face him. He invoked his runic power again. This time his skill did not fail him, and he removed a large amount of the front wooden wheel of the juggernaut. The juggernaut lurched violently. Nearby, the guards of the camp rose to their feet and turned to see what was happening. Mazaramus transformed himself into a fly and flew to the top of the juggernaut. Transforming back into his human self again, he cast a wall of fire spell to block the camp guards from approaching. Most of the guards hung back, but one of their number, evidently a highly ranked warrior judging by the plate mail armour that he was wearing, barked out orders to fetch reinforcements. He then leapt through the wall of fire brandishing his two-handed sword.
Sneaky had managed to get quite close to the juggernaut herself, but kept a safe distance from the construct. Mazaramus invoked his runic powers again, this time creating a large hole in the side of the juggernaut. Chests full of coins and jewels began to slide towards this opening. Sneaky barely had time to dive out of the way before the chests came crashing down on top of her.
The juggernaut was lurching about too violently for Mazaramus to remain stood atop it so he descended to the ground. The juggernaut was barely functional. Mazaramus runes had caused extensive structural damage. It was turning at a sluggish pace, the ram jutting from its front barely scraping the rocky ground. Sneaky ran to Mazaramus who had leapt to the ground and was now regaining his feet. Charging at them, having leapt through the flames of the fire wall, came one of the Master's champions, his two-handed sword raised high to cleave the wizard.
Sneaky spied a glass vial hanging out of one of Mazaramus' pouches. She grabbed it and through it at the hole in the juggernaut. The vial smashed and acid ate through the construct. Finally, it stopped. Mazaramus, in desperation, fired a volley of magic missiles at the armoured figure. Just then, Lithanor, in griffon form, lunged at the captain of the Master's army, impaling him on his beak and carrying him aloft in a claw.
Morgan, Klaus and Gandi heard that something was amiss. The various soldiers camped about were rising up, grabbing their weapons, and heading towards the burning inferno on top of the rocky rise, They guessed that their friends were in trouble and rode to assist them. Most of the soldiers, comprised of humans, gnolls and bugbears paid the three no heed, but two more astute warriors, evidently low-ranked officers, spotted the hoofprints mysteriously appearing. They attempted to block the riders, but Morgan charged through, slicing at the two warriors, leaving them grievously wounded and knocking them flying out of the way.
Mazaramus and Lithanor saw that they had a problem. It seemed as if the entire army of the Master was converging on them. Lithanor and Mazaramus tried to flee the scene by flying away, but a number of gargoyles were also in the Master's army. Lithanor fought of the first few flights of gargoyles while Mazaramus made his escape. Sneaky had taken advantage of the confusion by scooping the treasures that had fallen out of the juggernaut into a bag of holding before quietly making herself scarce.
Morgan, Klaus and Gandi had ridden to the forefront of the approaching hordes, many of whom had assumed they were also part of the Master;s army, when various skeletal creatures appeared as if from nowhere and began decimating the soldiers of the Master's army. A huge nine-headed hydra skeleton. a monstrous skeletal troll, and several undead giant crabs assailed the Master's army. Almost a score of skeletal troops took up station atop the hill and launched volley after volley of arrow into the advancing troops. The companions took advantage of this timely and unexpected intervention to make good their escape. The only one not surprised at their arrival was Mazaramus.
They headed north-westwards from the camp of the Master's army, not stopping until they were well out of sight. Sneaky had been separated for a while, having lost her horse in the confusion, but somehow managed to catch up and find the party. They thanked Pellar and whatever other gods were on their side for their lucky escape. Klaus and Lithanor, however, cast a suspicious glance at Mazaramus.
The gulley near the basilisks was riddled with openings that seemed to lead into a network of narrow tunnels. They guessed that this warren may contain more basilisks. Lithanor had given Mazaramus his old wand of fire balls, and he aimed this down one of the tunnels. The wand glowed fiery red as the last charge of the wand was used up. The wand turned to ash and disintegrated in his hand, Some distance in the tunnel, flames billowed forth, and Mazaramus ducked just in time, avoiding the back-blast of the fire ball as it swept through the tunnels. Gouts of flame erupted from the other nearby openings too. If their were any more basilisks in the tunnels, they would have been totally immolated.
Lithanor cancelled his invisibility spell, somehow seeing it to be more of a hindrance than anything else. The party members being unable to see each other did not sit well with him, no matter what advantages it provided on such a covert mission. He then scouted ahead of the main party. Shortly after leaving the gulley where they had encountered the basilisks, he saw a lone man waiting in the shade of the rocks. It was apparent that the man wasn't hostile. The rest of the party decided to come out of hiding and reveal themselves. The man laid his weapons before him.and indicated for the party to do the same. They complied. Satisfied that the party was non-belligerent, he led them into the dervish camp. There they were met by Talel el Haraidhin, the leader of the dervishes/
After verifying that the party was not hostile by using a detect evil spell (and insisting that Klaus do the same), Talel explained that he had been tasked by his deity to find the party in order to aid them with some valuable information. He had tried to find them earlier, but this had not been possible as the party had remained invisible whilst they had been on scouting patrols with the caravan.
First of all, he pointed out that they were heading in the wrong direction. They were actually several hundred miles south of where they thought they were. After discovering this, Mazaramus made use of a fly spell (being deprived of his broom of flying) on a daily basis to get a better fix on their bearings. He told them of the fate of the Republican Army. It had been completely wiped out by the armies of the Master when it was led into a trap. When the party told him of their quest, he pointed out that they should seek the Great Pass, near the entrance of which is believed to be a monastery. The Great Pass is the only way of passing through the Black Mountains, beyond which lies the land of Hule, ruled by The Master.
After providing the party with the hospitality of the camp, including a modest yet tasteful feast, Talel told the party that he would commune with his deity to see what further help he could provide. In the morning, he told them to seek out the following, first a land where terror sleeps beneath the earth. This they had already encountered - the hydra where they had recovered the partial map showing the location of the Great Pass. The second thing they should seek is four strong men who cannot move, and finally a man who is not a man.
Talel also warned them about the amulets that the Master uses to see through. Morgan had widely kept the amulet that they had obtained in Pramayama in the bottom of his back pack. Talel told him to keep it hidden (or even better, destroy it) and on no account attempt to use it. Evil was already following the party, though the nature of this evil was unclear.
Leaving the dervish camp, the party headed directly northwards in order to get back on track. Their rations had by now run out, including Lithanor's mushrooms of sustenance Even Mazaramus' bag of unending nourishment couldn't feed the entire party. They were now dependent on Klaus' create food spells for their survival.
It was after over a week after leaving the dervishes and travelling through the harsh desert when the party ran into the Army of the Master. At first, it seemed as if a huge cloud was moving across the desert towards them. By the time they realised what it was, it was too late to avoid it. Luckily, they found a small cave in a ravine in which they could hide. The army stopped and made camp all around where they were hiding.
The party were once again covered by invisibility spells, and Sneaky took advantage of this to take a quick scout around. A few warriors were camped near the ravine, but she easily slipped past them. Surveying the scene, she saw that the army had camped in several large groups dotted about over a vast area of the desert about them. In the distance, atop a low rise, she could see some tower like structure, with a group of soldiers nearby. She returned to the party to report what she had seen.
Mazaramus guessed that the tower-like structure she had seen was a juggernaut, going on the description that Morgan had given him of the monstrous construct that had crushed the war wagons of his convoy several weeks earlier. He cast a polymorph self spell on himself and made himself invisible again. Turning himself into a griffon, he flew off towards the juggernaut encampment. Sneaky followed on one of the riding horses. After a few moments, Lithanor decided to follow suit, silently slinking into the camp on his own. Morgan, Klaus and Gandi remained in the cave with the rest of the horses.
Lithanor soon came across a hill giant stumbling along with a horse under its arm. Lithanor spied a large pouch at the giant's belt, bulging with coins. Lithanor attempted to lift the pouch, but without the skills that Sneaky had, his attempt was clumsy and alerted the giant to the theft. Abandoning the stealthy approach, Lithanor drew Scorbane and hacked the giant down. Nearby, camps of the Master's armies paid little head to the fight, assuming that this kind of brawling and in-fighting goes on all the time.
Mazaramus had reached the juggernaut camp slightly ahead of Sneaky, who had left her horse near the bottom of the rise in the rocky desert and ascended on foot. Mazaramus approached the juggernaut and attempted to invoke his runic powers to shape the wood of the juggernaut. Yes, the one Morgan had told him about was composed of stone/ This one must be a wooden variant. His first attempt was unsuccessful, so he tried again. However, the juggernaut now seemed to be aware of him and was rotating to face him. He invoked his runic power again. This time his skill did not fail him, and he removed a large amount of the front wooden wheel of the juggernaut. The juggernaut lurched violently. Nearby, the guards of the camp rose to their feet and turned to see what was happening. Mazaramus transformed himself into a fly and flew to the top of the juggernaut. Transforming back into his human self again, he cast a wall of fire spell to block the camp guards from approaching. Most of the guards hung back, but one of their number, evidently a highly ranked warrior judging by the plate mail armour that he was wearing, barked out orders to fetch reinforcements. He then leapt through the wall of fire brandishing his two-handed sword.
Sneaky had managed to get quite close to the juggernaut herself, but kept a safe distance from the construct. Mazaramus invoked his runic powers again, this time creating a large hole in the side of the juggernaut. Chests full of coins and jewels began to slide towards this opening. Sneaky barely had time to dive out of the way before the chests came crashing down on top of her.
The juggernaut was lurching about too violently for Mazaramus to remain stood atop it so he descended to the ground. The juggernaut was barely functional. Mazaramus runes had caused extensive structural damage. It was turning at a sluggish pace, the ram jutting from its front barely scraping the rocky ground. Sneaky ran to Mazaramus who had leapt to the ground and was now regaining his feet. Charging at them, having leapt through the flames of the fire wall, came one of the Master's champions, his two-handed sword raised high to cleave the wizard.
Sneaky spied a glass vial hanging out of one of Mazaramus' pouches. She grabbed it and through it at the hole in the juggernaut. The vial smashed and acid ate through the construct. Finally, it stopped. Mazaramus, in desperation, fired a volley of magic missiles at the armoured figure. Just then, Lithanor, in griffon form, lunged at the captain of the Master's army, impaling him on his beak and carrying him aloft in a claw.
Morgan, Klaus and Gandi heard that something was amiss. The various soldiers camped about were rising up, grabbing their weapons, and heading towards the burning inferno on top of the rocky rise, They guessed that their friends were in trouble and rode to assist them. Most of the soldiers, comprised of humans, gnolls and bugbears paid the three no heed, but two more astute warriors, evidently low-ranked officers, spotted the hoofprints mysteriously appearing. They attempted to block the riders, but Morgan charged through, slicing at the two warriors, leaving them grievously wounded and knocking them flying out of the way.
Mazaramus and Lithanor saw that they had a problem. It seemed as if the entire army of the Master was converging on them. Lithanor and Mazaramus tried to flee the scene by flying away, but a number of gargoyles were also in the Master's army. Lithanor fought of the first few flights of gargoyles while Mazaramus made his escape. Sneaky had taken advantage of the confusion by scooping the treasures that had fallen out of the juggernaut into a bag of holding before quietly making herself scarce.
Morgan, Klaus and Gandi had ridden to the forefront of the approaching hordes, many of whom had assumed they were also part of the Master;s army, when various skeletal creatures appeared as if from nowhere and began decimating the soldiers of the Master's army. A huge nine-headed hydra skeleton. a monstrous skeletal troll, and several undead giant crabs assailed the Master's army. Almost a score of skeletal troops took up station atop the hill and launched volley after volley of arrow into the advancing troops. The companions took advantage of this timely and unexpected intervention to make good their escape. The only one not surprised at their arrival was Mazaramus.
They headed north-westwards from the camp of the Master's army, not stopping until they were well out of sight. Sneaky had been separated for a while, having lost her horse in the confusion, but somehow managed to catch up and find the party. They thanked Pellar and whatever other gods were on their side for their lucky escape. Klaus and Lithanor, however, cast a suspicious glance at Mazaramus.
Session Six - Fleeing the Master's Army
Mazaramus had once again covered the party with invisibility spells. They still had the body of the champion that had been in charge of the juggernaut camp, having stored it in Mazaramus' bag of holding once they were clear of the army. The armour was still intact and turned out to be magical, Morgan took the armour. It could prove handy as a disguise and he hoped that he could pass for one of the Master's soldiers whilst wearing it should the need arise.
Although they had put some distance between themselves and the Master's army, they spotted a patrol, presumably hunting for the party, moving roughly parallel to the party. This patrol was led by a fire giant, and included a group of five harpies and a chimera ridden by a warrior of the Master's army. Rather than remain hidden and wait for the patrol to pass them by, they bombarded the patrol group with a barrage of spells. Mazaramus incinerated the group of harpies with a fire ball, and Lithanor launched a lightning bolt at the chimera. The fighter riding it was slain instantly, and fell to the rocky desert below. The chimera flew at the party in a rage, and the fire giant also advanced on the party.
Mazaramus realised that the chimera was heading straight for him, and quickly cast a polymorph self spell. It quickly closed, and delivered a series of ferocious attacks, including engulfing the mage in flames from the red dragon head. The fire giant swung at Lithanor with his giant sword, but the elf nimbly dodged the blow. The chimera, already wounded by the lightning bolt blast, was soon slain when Gandi and Sneaky came to Mazaramus' aid. Morgan swung his claymore at the fire giant, but found his blow parried by the giant's sword. However, this opened the giant up to the counter-strikes from Lithanor and Klaus. With the chimera slain, the fire giant was soon overwhelmed and slain by the combined might of the companions.
Although they had put some distance between themselves and the Master's army, they spotted a patrol, presumably hunting for the party, moving roughly parallel to the party. This patrol was led by a fire giant, and included a group of five harpies and a chimera ridden by a warrior of the Master's army. Rather than remain hidden and wait for the patrol to pass them by, they bombarded the patrol group with a barrage of spells. Mazaramus incinerated the group of harpies with a fire ball, and Lithanor launched a lightning bolt at the chimera. The fighter riding it was slain instantly, and fell to the rocky desert below. The chimera flew at the party in a rage, and the fire giant also advanced on the party.
Mazaramus realised that the chimera was heading straight for him, and quickly cast a polymorph self spell. It quickly closed, and delivered a series of ferocious attacks, including engulfing the mage in flames from the red dragon head. The fire giant swung at Lithanor with his giant sword, but the elf nimbly dodged the blow. The chimera, already wounded by the lightning bolt blast, was soon slain when Gandi and Sneaky came to Mazaramus' aid. Morgan swung his claymore at the fire giant, but found his blow parried by the giant's sword. However, this opened the giant up to the counter-strikes from Lithanor and Klaus. With the chimera slain, the fire giant was soon overwhelmed and slain by the combined might of the companions.
A quick search of the corpses revealed nothing useful. Mazaramus waited until the party had moved off and animated the skeleton of the chimera to begin replacing his undead army, again masking it with an invisibility spell to avoid detection by the party.
The attack on the army of the Master was far from being ignored. Several patrols had been sent out to hunt for the party, and it is a reasonable assumption that the failure of the fire giant patrol to return did not go unnoticed/ They came upon a group of twenty gnolls, with several harpies flying about close to them. Every now and then, one of the gnolls would toss something, causing the harpies to flee after it. The party could only guess, but it seemed as though they were scraps of food, though Lithanor thought he spotted a bloody arm being feasted on by one of the harpies.
Morgan decided to test out his disguise. Cancelling his invisibility, he boldly advanced towards the gnolls. His disguise seemed to work. The gnolls asked him where the rest of his patrol was. Morgan explained that it had been wiped out. Morgan asked where the patrol leader was. The gnolls simply said "leader hiding". Morgan made a derogatory remark about the cowardice of the leader. At this, the gnolls seemed to get nervous, telling Morgan to keep quiet because "leader might hear". Morgan assumed that this was a reference to the Master using magic to listen in on the patrols.
Eventually, Mazaramus lost patience and fire balled the group. This was partly a pre-arranged plan. Morgan had taken a ring of fire resistance in the case of this eventuality. All of the gnolls were fried, and a couple of harpies were caught in the blast as well. The remaining harpies fled. All but one were taken down with magic missiles and missile fire, but one escaped. Furthermore, and unbeknownst to them, the patrol leader that the gnolls were referring to was actually an invisible warlock, who also escaped to report on the party.
The attack on the army of the Master was far from being ignored. Several patrols had been sent out to hunt for the party, and it is a reasonable assumption that the failure of the fire giant patrol to return did not go unnoticed/ They came upon a group of twenty gnolls, with several harpies flying about close to them. Every now and then, one of the gnolls would toss something, causing the harpies to flee after it. The party could only guess, but it seemed as though they were scraps of food, though Lithanor thought he spotted a bloody arm being feasted on by one of the harpies.
Morgan decided to test out his disguise. Cancelling his invisibility, he boldly advanced towards the gnolls. His disguise seemed to work. The gnolls asked him where the rest of his patrol was. Morgan explained that it had been wiped out. Morgan asked where the patrol leader was. The gnolls simply said "leader hiding". Morgan made a derogatory remark about the cowardice of the leader. At this, the gnolls seemed to get nervous, telling Morgan to keep quiet because "leader might hear". Morgan assumed that this was a reference to the Master using magic to listen in on the patrols.
Eventually, Mazaramus lost patience and fire balled the group. This was partly a pre-arranged plan. Morgan had taken a ring of fire resistance in the case of this eventuality. All of the gnolls were fried, and a couple of harpies were caught in the blast as well. The remaining harpies fled. All but one were taken down with magic missiles and missile fire, but one escaped. Furthermore, and unbeknownst to them, the patrol leader that the gnolls were referring to was actually an invisible warlock, who also escaped to report on the party.
They soon came across another patrol. This one consisted of a large amount of goblins, along with a troop of bugbears, two trolls, and led by one of the Master's champions. It seemed to be heading in the opposite direction to the party, possibly returning to the main army. As with the previous patrols, haye could have easily avoided it, but chose instead to attack, harassing the Master;s armies and reducing their numbers wherever they could. Needless to say, the patrol had no chance against the barrage of spells and the martial prowess of Morgan, Gandi and Lithanor. With the patrol group completely wiped out, Mazaramus once again chose to hang back, looking to raise some skeletal bugbears. This time, Lithanor doubled back, using his elven cloak and boots to remain undetected and spy on the activities of the wizard.
With the help of a detect invisible spell, he discovered that Mazaramus had animated a chimera and three bugbear skeletons. Mazaramus had returned to the party and ordered his undead to follow at a safe distance. Once he was clear, Lithanor cast a haste spell on himself, then surrounded the bugbear skeletons in a wall of ice. Up ahead, Mazaramus heard the crackle of the ice and looking back saw that his undead were under attack. He rushed back, but by the time he got there, Lithanor had diced the skeletons to pieces. He stood amidst the bones, a sword in each hand, golden wings sprouting from his back. The elf glared angrily at him.
Mazaramus himself was none too pleased that his creations had been so recklessly destroyed. Any thoughts of retaliating or trying to use magic on the elf were quickly dismissed from his mind when Lithanor raised Scorbane, pointing it at his throat. Mazaramus tried to explain that they would need all the help they could get on this quest, even if it involved using a little dark magic, but Lithanor was having none of it. He warned the wizard that he would not tolerate any more of his necromantics.
After this, several days passed without encountering any more enemy patrols. They found a wide, shallow ravine leading down into what seemed to be less rocky, sandier desert. They followed this, hoping it would take them away from the patrol routes of the main army. Near the bottom, they found a small cave in the side of the ravine, with a thin wisp of smoke coming from it. Mazaramus decided to venture forward to investigate. He found a short tunnel leading to a wider cave, about 30' across. Lying in the centre of the cave was a huge pile of treasure, chests full of coins and gems, suits of armour, swords, wands...and a broom!
The rest of the party were hastening after him. Mazaramus suspected that the pile of treasure was an illusion. Focusing his will and calling upon his wizardly training, he concentrated on seeing through the vision, and the illusion disappeared. A booming laugh echoed through the cavern, and a glowing red demonic figure appeared, its lower half bathed in flames. "You have seen through my illusion, wizard! Now for your second test". A wall of flame sprung up behind him, blocking off the tunnel, and the creature before him turned into a pillar of flame.
The flames lashed out at Mazaramus, who barely dodged aside to avoid being completely consumed by the flames himself. The flame pillar turned to advance on the wizard once more, when Lithanor led a charge through the wall of fire and attacked the thing with their magical weapons. Lithanor, Morgan and Gandi, assisted by the magic of Mazaramus were soon able to defeat the creature, which seemed to burn away into nothing when Morgan plunged his claymore into the midst of the fiery being. At the same time, the wall of fire blocking the tunnel disappeared. The cave seemed eerily quiet and deserted. Klaus helped the somewhat singed wizard out of the cave and used his healing to soothe the burns. Mazaramus realised what the creature was...an efreet! What was it doing here? Had it been summoned and under the control of another wizard? Or was it a free-roaming elemental on some mission of its own on the Prime Plane?
They continued on, heading in a roughly north to north-westerly direction. They encountered no more patrols, having seemingly given them the slip. They faced a few more dangers, yes, giant desert scorpions waiting in ambush to feed on the unwary, and a wide salt flat where they witnessed a battle between a basilisk and a strange six-footed lizard like creature with a long neck and a reddish-orange mottling along its back. Without watching too closely lest they meet the gaze of the basilisk, they favoured the formers chances. Another of the strange lizard creatures stood nearby in a petrified state. When they saw flames belch forth from the other lizard creature at the basilisk, they reassessed the odds. Either way, they were not going to get involved and left them to fight it out. Mazaramus and Lithanor used polymorph spells to turn into large flying creatures to take the party across the salt flat as quickly as possible. Lithanor chose the form of a griffon, while Mazaramus changed into a blue dragon. Under normal circumstances, the griffon would have easily outflown the dragon. However, the heat rising from the flats hampered Lithanor somewhat and was barely able to keep pace with Mazaramus, who coasted the thermals with ease.
With any luck, the salt flats would provide another barrier between themselves and any pursuing patrols of the Master's army. They were now only a couple of hundred miles from the Black Mountains. They only had the vaguest of ideas as to where this Great Pass was in this vast mountain range. They headed north-westwards now, hoping that they would soon find the edge of the desert and would be somewhere near where they estimated the Great Pass to be.
A few days later, they came across the site of a great battle. Bodies littered the rocks over a wide area. A wide ramp led upwards to a low plateau, and the bodies of slain soldiers of both the Master's armies and the Republican Army of Darokin littered this area also. At the top of the plateau, merely a few yards from where the ramp descended to the rocky floor below, a large mass of Darokinian soldiers lay around a shattered standard. It seemed as though they had been driven to the cliff edge and there they made a valiant last stand. Some way off, perhaps half a mile or so, they could make out some stony monolith. They all knew what this was, it was a juggernaut, though it now remained motionless.
As they pondered the scene, grey wisps rose from the corpses, slowly coalescing until they appeared as grey shades of Darokin soldiers. Their lifeless eyes gazed at the party, and the dark ghostly forms advanced, their spears readied and aiming at the party members.
Klaus withdrew a scroll and chanted the holy words inscribed on them. Boldly standing before the wraiths, he shouted "Stop! We are not your enemies! Seek your vengeance on those that cut you down!" He indicated in the direction they had come, towards the Master's army many miles away across the desert. The lead wraith said in a cold voice "We will have our vengeance...on our true enemies"
The wraiths disappeared, their forms returning to the ground, then a cold wind blew across the desert rocks for an instant in the direction that Klaus had indicated. Mazaramus calmly walked up to Klaus and said "That was most impressive." then turned to Lithanor. "It would seem after all that using the undead to serve a greater good would be acceptable, no?"
They turned their attention to the juggernaut in the distance. It had not moved the whole time that they had been there. Mazaramus pointed out that the last one they had encountered had had a substantial amount of treasure stored inside it. Maybe this one has too. Mazaramus cast a fly spell on himself and flew towards the juggernaut. As soon as he got to with a hundred feet a so, the juggernaut stirred and began to turn towards him. Mazaramus simply flew above it. The juggernaut helplessly rotated to and fro, unable to reach the flying wizard. Mazaramus prepared his runic powers to shape stone. He flew down and placed his rune on the front wheel of the juggernaut and attempted to shape the wheel into a square block. He was partly successful. The wheel was squared off on one side, and the juggernaut listed slightly as it turned. Mazaramus prepared to fly off so that he could ready another rune. He realised with horror that his robe had become trapped under the wheel of the juggernaut. Frantically, he placed a second rune barely in time before it turned to face him, ready to crush him to a pulp. The whole side of the juggernaut collapsed, and Mazaramus was freed.
Lithanor was now firing flaming arrows at the construct in an effort to distract it. Morgan and Gandi, still invisible thanks to Mazaramus, approached it from the side, hoping that their magical weapons were powerful enough to bring it down. It was not necessary. Mazaramus, master of stone, placed his third and final rune, causing the juggernaut to completely collapse in a heap of stone and rubble. Lying amidst the debris, as Mazaramus had hoped, they managed to retrieve several valuable rugs and tapestries, as well as a substantial amount of platinum coins.
They still had no idea why the juggernaut had been left behind. Perhaps it had malfunctioned or broken down temporarily, or, as evidenced by the crushed gnolls nearby, it had gone berserk and attacked those that were supposed to be guiding it. No matter. As soon as they had stashed the treasures in their bags of holding, they hastened from the battlefield and towards the Black Mountains.
Finally, they reached the edge of the Sind Desert, and climbed into the foothills of the Black Mountains. They now began to take a more westerly course, trusting to luck and hoping the rough map they had found was more accurate than they hoped.
After a couple of days travelling through forested hills, they came to the edge of a bowl-shaped area.
On the other side they could see four huge statues. They were about to descend into the bowl when they heard a booming voice from the statues "Stay back, man of mortal clay. This is our sacred ground!" Not knowing what to make of it, they held their ground. Then another statue spoke "Speak what you want. All who come to us are fulfilled"
Mazaramus figured out that this was the second clue that Talel el-Hareidhin had told them, "Four strong men who cannot move" He asked the statues where the Great Pass was, and also if they knew anything about the Master. All they learnt about the Master was that he lived "in a chariot of many rooms, in a land of neither ice nor fire". After this, little more could be learned from the statues, which began wailing mournfully. They did find out that they were headed in the right direction. If they carried on on their westwards course, they will find the Great Pass, and the monastery that Talel had guessed was there.
They left the statues to their whimpering and carried on westwards. They met little trouble, save for a couple of cockatrices hiding in the underbrush, and a group of four ogres that were quickly dealt with. After a few more days they headed northwards to where they assumed the Great Pass to be. There, ahead of them, between two cliff-sides of the nearby mountains stood a high steep-sided hill, and atop it, what seemed to be some kind of structure, almost like a fort or a walled village.
They approached closer and found that a broad staircase climbed the steep sides of the hill. There at the foot of the staircase, two hooded robed figures waited. They welcomed the party and asked if they needed rest and shelter. Grateful for the offer of hospitality, the party accepted their kindness and followed them up the steps to the abbey at the top.
With the help of a detect invisible spell, he discovered that Mazaramus had animated a chimera and three bugbear skeletons. Mazaramus had returned to the party and ordered his undead to follow at a safe distance. Once he was clear, Lithanor cast a haste spell on himself, then surrounded the bugbear skeletons in a wall of ice. Up ahead, Mazaramus heard the crackle of the ice and looking back saw that his undead were under attack. He rushed back, but by the time he got there, Lithanor had diced the skeletons to pieces. He stood amidst the bones, a sword in each hand, golden wings sprouting from his back. The elf glared angrily at him.
Mazaramus himself was none too pleased that his creations had been so recklessly destroyed. Any thoughts of retaliating or trying to use magic on the elf were quickly dismissed from his mind when Lithanor raised Scorbane, pointing it at his throat. Mazaramus tried to explain that they would need all the help they could get on this quest, even if it involved using a little dark magic, but Lithanor was having none of it. He warned the wizard that he would not tolerate any more of his necromantics.
After this, several days passed without encountering any more enemy patrols. They found a wide, shallow ravine leading down into what seemed to be less rocky, sandier desert. They followed this, hoping it would take them away from the patrol routes of the main army. Near the bottom, they found a small cave in the side of the ravine, with a thin wisp of smoke coming from it. Mazaramus decided to venture forward to investigate. He found a short tunnel leading to a wider cave, about 30' across. Lying in the centre of the cave was a huge pile of treasure, chests full of coins and gems, suits of armour, swords, wands...and a broom!
The rest of the party were hastening after him. Mazaramus suspected that the pile of treasure was an illusion. Focusing his will and calling upon his wizardly training, he concentrated on seeing through the vision, and the illusion disappeared. A booming laugh echoed through the cavern, and a glowing red demonic figure appeared, its lower half bathed in flames. "You have seen through my illusion, wizard! Now for your second test". A wall of flame sprung up behind him, blocking off the tunnel, and the creature before him turned into a pillar of flame.
The flames lashed out at Mazaramus, who barely dodged aside to avoid being completely consumed by the flames himself. The flame pillar turned to advance on the wizard once more, when Lithanor led a charge through the wall of fire and attacked the thing with their magical weapons. Lithanor, Morgan and Gandi, assisted by the magic of Mazaramus were soon able to defeat the creature, which seemed to burn away into nothing when Morgan plunged his claymore into the midst of the fiery being. At the same time, the wall of fire blocking the tunnel disappeared. The cave seemed eerily quiet and deserted. Klaus helped the somewhat singed wizard out of the cave and used his healing to soothe the burns. Mazaramus realised what the creature was...an efreet! What was it doing here? Had it been summoned and under the control of another wizard? Or was it a free-roaming elemental on some mission of its own on the Prime Plane?
They continued on, heading in a roughly north to north-westerly direction. They encountered no more patrols, having seemingly given them the slip. They faced a few more dangers, yes, giant desert scorpions waiting in ambush to feed on the unwary, and a wide salt flat where they witnessed a battle between a basilisk and a strange six-footed lizard like creature with a long neck and a reddish-orange mottling along its back. Without watching too closely lest they meet the gaze of the basilisk, they favoured the formers chances. Another of the strange lizard creatures stood nearby in a petrified state. When they saw flames belch forth from the other lizard creature at the basilisk, they reassessed the odds. Either way, they were not going to get involved and left them to fight it out. Mazaramus and Lithanor used polymorph spells to turn into large flying creatures to take the party across the salt flat as quickly as possible. Lithanor chose the form of a griffon, while Mazaramus changed into a blue dragon. Under normal circumstances, the griffon would have easily outflown the dragon. However, the heat rising from the flats hampered Lithanor somewhat and was barely able to keep pace with Mazaramus, who coasted the thermals with ease.With any luck, the salt flats would provide another barrier between themselves and any pursuing patrols of the Master's army. They were now only a couple of hundred miles from the Black Mountains. They only had the vaguest of ideas as to where this Great Pass was in this vast mountain range. They headed north-westwards now, hoping that they would soon find the edge of the desert and would be somewhere near where they estimated the Great Pass to be.
A few days later, they came across the site of a great battle. Bodies littered the rocks over a wide area. A wide ramp led upwards to a low plateau, and the bodies of slain soldiers of both the Master's armies and the Republican Army of Darokin littered this area also. At the top of the plateau, merely a few yards from where the ramp descended to the rocky floor below, a large mass of Darokinian soldiers lay around a shattered standard. It seemed as though they had been driven to the cliff edge and there they made a valiant last stand. Some way off, perhaps half a mile or so, they could make out some stony monolith. They all knew what this was, it was a juggernaut, though it now remained motionless.
As they pondered the scene, grey wisps rose from the corpses, slowly coalescing until they appeared as grey shades of Darokin soldiers. Their lifeless eyes gazed at the party, and the dark ghostly forms advanced, their spears readied and aiming at the party members.
Klaus withdrew a scroll and chanted the holy words inscribed on them. Boldly standing before the wraiths, he shouted "Stop! We are not your enemies! Seek your vengeance on those that cut you down!" He indicated in the direction they had come, towards the Master's army many miles away across the desert. The lead wraith said in a cold voice "We will have our vengeance...on our true enemies"
The wraiths disappeared, their forms returning to the ground, then a cold wind blew across the desert rocks for an instant in the direction that Klaus had indicated. Mazaramus calmly walked up to Klaus and said "That was most impressive." then turned to Lithanor. "It would seem after all that using the undead to serve a greater good would be acceptable, no?"
They turned their attention to the juggernaut in the distance. It had not moved the whole time that they had been there. Mazaramus pointed out that the last one they had encountered had had a substantial amount of treasure stored inside it. Maybe this one has too. Mazaramus cast a fly spell on himself and flew towards the juggernaut. As soon as he got to with a hundred feet a so, the juggernaut stirred and began to turn towards him. Mazaramus simply flew above it. The juggernaut helplessly rotated to and fro, unable to reach the flying wizard. Mazaramus prepared his runic powers to shape stone. He flew down and placed his rune on the front wheel of the juggernaut and attempted to shape the wheel into a square block. He was partly successful. The wheel was squared off on one side, and the juggernaut listed slightly as it turned. Mazaramus prepared to fly off so that he could ready another rune. He realised with horror that his robe had become trapped under the wheel of the juggernaut. Frantically, he placed a second rune barely in time before it turned to face him, ready to crush him to a pulp. The whole side of the juggernaut collapsed, and Mazaramus was freed.
Lithanor was now firing flaming arrows at the construct in an effort to distract it. Morgan and Gandi, still invisible thanks to Mazaramus, approached it from the side, hoping that their magical weapons were powerful enough to bring it down. It was not necessary. Mazaramus, master of stone, placed his third and final rune, causing the juggernaut to completely collapse in a heap of stone and rubble. Lying amidst the debris, as Mazaramus had hoped, they managed to retrieve several valuable rugs and tapestries, as well as a substantial amount of platinum coins.
They still had no idea why the juggernaut had been left behind. Perhaps it had malfunctioned or broken down temporarily, or, as evidenced by the crushed gnolls nearby, it had gone berserk and attacked those that were supposed to be guiding it. No matter. As soon as they had stashed the treasures in their bags of holding, they hastened from the battlefield and towards the Black Mountains.
Finally, they reached the edge of the Sind Desert, and climbed into the foothills of the Black Mountains. They now began to take a more westerly course, trusting to luck and hoping the rough map they had found was more accurate than they hoped.
After a couple of days travelling through forested hills, they came to the edge of a bowl-shaped area.
Mazaramus figured out that this was the second clue that Talel el-Hareidhin had told them, "Four strong men who cannot move" He asked the statues where the Great Pass was, and also if they knew anything about the Master. All they learnt about the Master was that he lived "in a chariot of many rooms, in a land of neither ice nor fire". After this, little more could be learned from the statues, which began wailing mournfully. They did find out that they were headed in the right direction. If they carried on on their westwards course, they will find the Great Pass, and the monastery that Talel had guessed was there.
They left the statues to their whimpering and carried on westwards. They met little trouble, save for a couple of cockatrices hiding in the underbrush, and a group of four ogres that were quickly dealt with. After a few more days they headed northwards to where they assumed the Great Pass to be. There, ahead of them, between two cliff-sides of the nearby mountains stood a high steep-sided hill, and atop it, what seemed to be some kind of structure, almost like a fort or a walled village.
They approached closer and found that a broad staircase climbed the steep sides of the hill. There at the foot of the staircase, two hooded robed figures waited. They welcomed the party and asked if they needed rest and shelter. Grateful for the offer of hospitality, the party accepted their kindness and followed them up the steps to the abbey at the top.
Session Seven - The Curse
The monks showed the party to the guest house where they could spend the night. They were told that they could freely walk about the abbey, with the exception of the temple itself, a large single storey structure taking up most of the south-western portion of the abbey. However, they were advised to remain inside the building at night because of 'the curse'.
Morgan and Gandi took the horses to the stables while the rest of the party conversed further with the monks before checking over the guest house. They asked the monks about this 'curse'. It seemed that the numbers of monks that should be occupying the abbey were severely depleted, and their were now but a handful. Something was coming out at night and devouring anyone who was not safely inside any of the buildings, and the apparent source of the curse was the blacksmith's building, near the north-west end of the compound. Morgan bragged that they had defeated the Malakaz, so they should find tackling this curse to be little problem at all. At mention of the Malakaz, the two monks looked at each other and one said "Perhaps these are the ones. We will consult the abbot on this matter". They bowed to the party and turned to walk towards the temple. Lithanor advised Sneaky, who was still invisible, that there was something strange about these monks and it might be a good idea for her to follow them.
Meanwhile, Morgan and Gandi had arrived at the stables and found it in an appalling state. The stench was almost overwhelming, and it was obvious that it hadn't been tended to or cleaned for months. Morgan found a broom and did his best to clean an area for the horses. They were reluctant to leave the horses in such an awful place, but they felt the need to return to the party and tell them about the state of the place.
The guest house was mostly empty rooms with the barest of furnishings, especially in the bedrooms. There was one room that was only accessible by a separate door which appeared to be a small shrine. Klaus decided to investigate this while the rest of the party looked around the house. Lithanor used Scorbane to detect for secret doors. He just happened to be standing in range of a secret door that led from the shrine into the main house. Although Lithanor could not see the glow emanating from the secret door due to an intervening wall, Klaus could.
Sneaky was hot on the trail of the two monks. He followed them through some large double doors that led into the temple compound. Across a small courtyard the monks went through a door into the temple building itself. This was found to lead into a room in which stood some kind of wheel mounted on a pole. Hung around the wheel were several tiny bells, and on top of the wheel was a small monkey. As Sneaky entered, the monkey frittered about nervously. Even though she was invisible, it was apparent that the monkey could sense her. Even more disturbing was the sickly appearance of the monkey, and the strange greenish hue around its eyes. Sneaky was unsure whether the poor creature was on the verge of death or had been dragged back into some pathetic semblance of life. She continued on after the monks, which had gone through another door in the south wall. Behind her, she heard the tinkling of the bells on the wheel as the monkey turned to face her direction.
A short corridor led to a wide pillared room. A wide arch led into a large chamber on the centre of the southern wall. Hung about the walls of the room were several paintings, which would have been quite valuable had they not been scratched and smeared with filth. The floor was made up of small wooden tiles in patterns of different colours. As she crossed the room, she heard eerie moans and near-human cries coming from beneath her. She continued on, guessing that the monks had entered the large chamber as there seemed to be no other exits from this hallway. The centre of the chamber was dominated by some kind of circular platform with what looked like a cauldron on top of it. She entered the large chamber, some kind of temple, and that is the last thing that she remembered.
She had no idea who she was or why she was here. Looking down at her hands and feet she saw that they had disappeared. The most reasonable conclusion she could arrive at was that she was dead. Some robed figures were walking towards her. She moved out of their way, huddling close to one of the many pillars in this large room. The robed men seemed not to notice her presence. They continued on across the room, leaving her alone in this strange place.
Back at the guest house, the party were beginning to become concerned. Sneaky was overdue from returning from her little scouting foray. The monks had returned briefly and told them that the abbot would appreciate it if they investigated the blacksmith shed and dealt with the demon that was being summoned by the curse. The sun was setting fast below the line of the nearby mountains, and they estimated that it would be night-time in less than half an hour. Mazaramus pulled out his crystal ball and did a little scrying. First, he focused on the monks that they had been speaking to earlier. They were in a room furnished with silks and furs, and were talking to someone else in the room. The wizard cursed at not being able to hear what they were saying. Even lip-reading would have proved useful. Gaining little more information than this, he focused on finding Sneaky with the crystal ball. He saw that she seemed to be in some large chamber filled with strangely carved and decorated pillars. Every now and then he caught a glimpse of some strange structure, some sort of dais with a cauldron on it. He couldn't see Sneaky herself as she was still invisible. However, her movement seemed to be erratic or confused, as if she were aimlessly wandering about in the pillared chamber.
The party unanimously decided that they should deal with the 'curse' first before they went off hunting for Sneaky. Night fell, and with the darkness came a sudden chill. A spine-chilling shrill howl echoed through the courtyards of the abbey, and they sensed some monstrous thing approaching from the direction of the blacksmith. Remaining in the building of the guest house, Lithanor cast a phantasmal force spell, creating the illusion of two monks in the courtyard about 15' away from the building. The 'demon' took the bait. A huge, six-legged lizard seemingly made of solid ice and snow, leapt at the illusion. Immediately, the party felt the numbing chill of the frost salamander. Mazaramus and Lithanor backed off, out of the range of its
chilling aura. Morgan, Gandi and Klaus charged out of the guest house to do combat with the beast. Thanks to Lithanor's distraction, they quickly slew the beast, and it evaporated into nothing, its essence returning to the elemental planes.
With the so-called demon dealt with, they went to investigate the blacksmith, but found little there except the usual furnishings one would expect to find in such a place. The forge was cold, having not been used in a long time. Nearby was a large stack of coal, evidently been pushed aside as though some large beast had emerged from it. Klaus cast a detect evil spell. Nothing!
By now, their suspicions about the monks were growing. The poor state of the place, the curious disappearance of Sneaky, and things not adding up about the source of the curse, all seemed to put the validity of the monk's intentions into doubt.
Immediately, they made their way to the main gates of the temple. They were barred from the inside, but Lithanor simply used his rope of climbing to climb over the walls of the compound, followed by the rest of the party. They were about to enter the temple when Lithanor spotted something approaching from the south. In the alley between the temple and the compound wall, two humanoid figures were approaching, led by some large animal. As they got closer, they saw that the animal was a giant weasel; held on a chain by the two figures following it. It was either feral or rabid, or animated into life by some unearthly magicks, and it had the same ghastly greenish tinge around its eyes as the monkey that Sneaky had earlier seen. The two people. if people they were, following it were dressed in the same garb as the monks, but their faces.were of some demonic creature. Their eyes were wide and bloodshot. The hair was a wild, scraggy tangle. Huge canine fangs protruded from their gaping mouths, and they reached out with clawed talon-like hands.
Klaus thought they might be some kind of wild vampire. He stood forward, presenting his holy symbol of Pelar and tried to turn them. Whatever they were, they were not undead. Gandi and Morgan stepped in, swords and axes at the ready, while Lithanor and Mazaramus assisted with spells. One of the creatures leapt at Morgan, sinking its fangs into his neck. Morgan's vision blurred and everything seemed to spin, almost as though he was in some dream-like haze played out in slow motion. He threw the beast off, and in what seemed a lethargic fashion, he rammed his claymore home skewering the foul thing. It fell back shrieking horribly, still trying to hungrily clutch at its slayer in its death throes. He looked around to see that the weasel had been hacked to death, and Gandi sank one of his axes into the skull of the other creature.
They cleaned the red-tinged white goo that passed for the blood of these creatures from their blades, then hastened towards the temple once again. They found the same wheel-on-a-pole device that Sneaky had discovered earlier, and the abomination that was once a monkey atop it. At sight of the party it shrieked excitedly, spinning the wheel and causing the bells to ring. Klaus had Morgan grab it. It couldn't escape as it was chained to the wheel. Klaus then called upon Pelar to deliver some healing magic to the monkey. White light briefly spread over it. The monkey then collapsed lying on top of the wheel and panting heavily. Klaus thought he had killed it in his attempts to heal it, but soon the breathing seemed to slow down and the greenish tinge began to slowly fade as the monkey fell into a peaceful slumber.
It was then that they heard numerous shrieks sound from all over the abbey. These monks, or whatever these creatures were, were now aware of the party. Moments later they heard the bar of the gates into the temple compound fall. Scrambling footsteps could be heard approaching from outside the temple. They spied a door opposite and made for this.
Beyond was a long, narrow dust-filled room. Evidently this room had not been entered for quite some time. At the far end they found some strange altar. Affixed to the top of it was a statue of a dragon.
One claw clutched a large pearl. The other claw pinned a snake-like creature with a woman's head/ Lithanor, Gandi and Mazaramus went forward to investigate the statue and the altar. Klaus and Morgan (who's senses were returning to normal, having shaken off the numbing effects of the monk-creature's bite) remained in the doorway ready to fight off any of these creatures should they approach. Lithanor recognised the dragon as a ruby dragon, and judged that the altar was dedicated to a Lawful deity. They had little chance to investigate further, as two of the monk-beasts came running towards Morgan and Klaus.
Lithanor told them to get back so he could cast a lightning bolt at them. The two creatures approached, but did not go past the doorway. Lithanor unleashed his spell. One of the creatures dodged out of the way before he completed his spell, but the other was hit squarely by the blast. Shrieking in agony, it shambled off, smoke rising from where Lithanor's spell had blasted it.
It seemed as though the creatures were either unwilling or unable to enter the shrine room. However, they did not like the idea of remaining in there while Sneaky was still in peril. After their short reprieve, they left the room and, discovering that the monk's had evidently fled, they continued searching the rest of the temple.
They were now in the narrow pillared room with the defaced paintings. Mazaramus cast a locate object spell to find Sneaky's rapier/ It was indicated to be in range and to the south. Hopefully it was still in Sneaky's possession. They proceeded across the room towards the archway to the large chamber with the dais/cauldron. The moans and wails cried out from beneath the floor but they ignored these. Peering into the chamber, they saw two more of the monk-demons, along with a small group of ghouls, standing about the dais and chanting. Laid on the dais around the cauldron was some huge dog-like creature, presumably dead as it was not moving at all. Mazaramus prepared to cast a fire ball at the figures around the dais, while Lithanor entered the chamber and slinked around, keeping to the walls.
Either the chanting figures were unaware of the party or they were too intent on their chanting to stop and look around. Mazaramus unleashed his
fire ball. The ghouls were instantly incinerated. The monks were badly singed and fled southwards. Lithanor gave chase, invoking his dragon maw as her did so. Following them along a short corridor leading from the southern end of the temple, he caught up with them when they turned to fight. Being already wounded by Mazaramus, they were soon vanquished by the combinations of Lithanor's sword and his dragon bite attack.
The rest of the party entered the temple chamber to follow Lithanor. However, the magic that had been placed over the archway took its effect once more. Klaus and Mazaramus succumbed to the same effects that Sneaky had earlier, totally forgetting who they were where they were, or any events of their life or who their friends were. Gandi and Morgan, however, had not been affected.
Lithanor found himself in a room that was totally bare except for four chests against the far wall. He thought he saw one of the chests move slightly, so he moved towards it. He cast a detect invisible spell and, as he guessed, was able to see Sneaky hiding behind the chests.
Gandi and Morgan could now hear several more shrieks coming from the main courtyard of the abbey. The rest of the monk-beasts were closing in, and they had a befuddled mage and cleric to tend to. Gandi withdrew his heartstone. It glowed bright green. he touched it to Klaus and then Mazaramus. As he did so, they regained their senses, remembering who they were. The heartstone faded and dimmed completely, its power now exhausted.
They moved southwards to catch up with Lithanor. He pointed out that Sneaky was huddled in the corner, frightened out of her wits. He had even attempted using a charm person spell on her, but she had somehow resisted its effect, even in her current state. The creatures would be upon them soon, and they seemed to be trapped. To make matters worse, even though Klaus and Mazaramus had had their memories restored, they had forgotten all of their spells, and would need to rest again before refreshing them.
The first of the monks arrived and ran into the corridor towards the party. Ahead of them were two bugbears, evidently in the service of these creatures ort allied with them. Mazaramus may have forgotten his spells, but he still had resources. He withdrew a scroll and cast a web spell in the corridor. Two of the monks were trapped in the web. Two more monks and the two bugbears had made it into the room and charged the party. The rest of the creatures, and the two trapped in the web, clawed away frantically at the web, trying to break through to reach the party. A door beside the corridor entrance opened. Beyond, a huge grizzly bear with the same ghastly, feral appearance as the other beasts loomed in the doorway, and behind it was another monk-creature. The robes, however, were slightly different, having more finery, and they guessed that this was the abbot. He howled out to the other monks to go back and around. They gave up on their attempts to break down the web and soon disappeared.
Morgan, Klaus and Gandi formed a defensive line, fighting off the bugbears and monks that had gotten into the room. Lithanor and Mazaramus remained behind this line, lending what magical support they could. Sneaky huddled in the corner, more terrified than ever and convinced that she was in hell.
Before the feral grizzly bear could charge into the fray, Lithanor cast a wall of ice spell, spanning it from wall to wall and trapping the two bugbears and monk-demons in the room with them. After a rather tough fight, they slew the few foes on their side of the wall of ice. Morgan once again succumbed to the numbing effects when one of the monk-creatures raked him with a claw, but its effects quickly wore off.
The monks had given up on trying to get to the party, at least for now. The abbot had deliberately burnt the webs to free the two that had been trapped within it, not caring whether they got injured in the process. Lithanor's spell would last for a couple of hours, and they fully expected the monks to be still waiting for them.
While they waited, they examined the four chests. They seemed to be just filled with monks clothing, but Lithanor discovered that one of them had a false bottom. Opening this up, it was revealed to be in actual fact a gate to a deep shaft. At the bottom of this, flames leapt up and demonic figures could be seen trying to reach up out of the flames towards the opening in the bottom of the chest. Lithanor quickly closed the chest, and the party decided to burn the chest completely, hoping to destroy the gate along with it. Soon the chest was all but burnt away, and it would seem that the opening had been destroyed along with it. However, the smoke in the confined area made breathing difficult, forcing them to lie close to the floor in order to breathe, and their eyes stung from the smoke and flames. Only the invisible Sneaky was unaffected, thanks to her ring of fire resistance. Even the wall of ice melted at the tops, though the ice continually refreshed through the power of the magic of the spell.
Mazaramus made his best guess as to the passage of time with respect to the duration of the wall of ice. When he deemed that it was close to the expiration of the spell, he stoked up his brazier of commanding fire elementals. If he couldn't cast his spells, he would have an ally fight for him instead. The elemental appeared, emerging from the last few burning brands of the broken chest, and the ice of Lithanor's spell began to vanish. They prepared to fight to the last against these demonic creatures...
Back at the guest house, the party were beginning to become concerned. Sneaky was overdue from returning from her little scouting foray. The monks had returned briefly and told them that the abbot would appreciate it if they investigated the blacksmith shed and dealt with the demon that was being summoned by the curse. The sun was setting fast below the line of the nearby mountains, and they estimated that it would be night-time in less than half an hour. Mazaramus pulled out his crystal ball and did a little scrying. First, he focused on the monks that they had been speaking to earlier. They were in a room furnished with silks and furs, and were talking to someone else in the room. The wizard cursed at not being able to hear what they were saying. Even lip-reading would have proved useful. Gaining little more information than this, he focused on finding Sneaky with the crystal ball. He saw that she seemed to be in some large chamber filled with strangely carved and decorated pillars. Every now and then he caught a glimpse of some strange structure, some sort of dais with a cauldron on it. He couldn't see Sneaky herself as she was still invisible. However, her movement seemed to be erratic or confused, as if she were aimlessly wandering about in the pillared chamber.
The party unanimously decided that they should deal with the 'curse' first before they went off hunting for Sneaky. Night fell, and with the darkness came a sudden chill. A spine-chilling shrill howl echoed through the courtyards of the abbey, and they sensed some monstrous thing approaching from the direction of the blacksmith. Remaining in the building of the guest house, Lithanor cast a phantasmal force spell, creating the illusion of two monks in the courtyard about 15' away from the building. The 'demon' took the bait. A huge, six-legged lizard seemingly made of solid ice and snow, leapt at the illusion. Immediately, the party felt the numbing chill of the frost salamander. Mazaramus and Lithanor backed off, out of the range of its
With the so-called demon dealt with, they went to investigate the blacksmith, but found little there except the usual furnishings one would expect to find in such a place. The forge was cold, having not been used in a long time. Nearby was a large stack of coal, evidently been pushed aside as though some large beast had emerged from it. Klaus cast a detect evil spell. Nothing!
By now, their suspicions about the monks were growing. The poor state of the place, the curious disappearance of Sneaky, and things not adding up about the source of the curse, all seemed to put the validity of the monk's intentions into doubt.
Immediately, they made their way to the main gates of the temple. They were barred from the inside, but Lithanor simply used his rope of climbing to climb over the walls of the compound, followed by the rest of the party. They were about to enter the temple when Lithanor spotted something approaching from the south. In the alley between the temple and the compound wall, two humanoid figures were approaching, led by some large animal. As they got closer, they saw that the animal was a giant weasel; held on a chain by the two figures following it. It was either feral or rabid, or animated into life by some unearthly magicks, and it had the same ghastly greenish tinge around its eyes as the monkey that Sneaky had earlier seen. The two people. if people they were, following it were dressed in the same garb as the monks, but their faces.were of some demonic creature. Their eyes were wide and bloodshot. The hair was a wild, scraggy tangle. Huge canine fangs protruded from their gaping mouths, and they reached out with clawed talon-like hands.
Klaus thought they might be some kind of wild vampire. He stood forward, presenting his holy symbol of Pelar and tried to turn them. Whatever they were, they were not undead. Gandi and Morgan stepped in, swords and axes at the ready, while Lithanor and Mazaramus assisted with spells. One of the creatures leapt at Morgan, sinking its fangs into his neck. Morgan's vision blurred and everything seemed to spin, almost as though he was in some dream-like haze played out in slow motion. He threw the beast off, and in what seemed a lethargic fashion, he rammed his claymore home skewering the foul thing. It fell back shrieking horribly, still trying to hungrily clutch at its slayer in its death throes. He looked around to see that the weasel had been hacked to death, and Gandi sank one of his axes into the skull of the other creature.
They cleaned the red-tinged white goo that passed for the blood of these creatures from their blades, then hastened towards the temple once again. They found the same wheel-on-a-pole device that Sneaky had discovered earlier, and the abomination that was once a monkey atop it. At sight of the party it shrieked excitedly, spinning the wheel and causing the bells to ring. Klaus had Morgan grab it. It couldn't escape as it was chained to the wheel. Klaus then called upon Pelar to deliver some healing magic to the monkey. White light briefly spread over it. The monkey then collapsed lying on top of the wheel and panting heavily. Klaus thought he had killed it in his attempts to heal it, but soon the breathing seemed to slow down and the greenish tinge began to slowly fade as the monkey fell into a peaceful slumber.
It was then that they heard numerous shrieks sound from all over the abbey. These monks, or whatever these creatures were, were now aware of the party. Moments later they heard the bar of the gates into the temple compound fall. Scrambling footsteps could be heard approaching from outside the temple. They spied a door opposite and made for this.
Beyond was a long, narrow dust-filled room. Evidently this room had not been entered for quite some time. At the far end they found some strange altar. Affixed to the top of it was a statue of a dragon.
Lithanor told them to get back so he could cast a lightning bolt at them. The two creatures approached, but did not go past the doorway. Lithanor unleashed his spell. One of the creatures dodged out of the way before he completed his spell, but the other was hit squarely by the blast. Shrieking in agony, it shambled off, smoke rising from where Lithanor's spell had blasted it.
It seemed as though the creatures were either unwilling or unable to enter the shrine room. However, they did not like the idea of remaining in there while Sneaky was still in peril. After their short reprieve, they left the room and, discovering that the monk's had evidently fled, they continued searching the rest of the temple.
They were now in the narrow pillared room with the defaced paintings. Mazaramus cast a locate object spell to find Sneaky's rapier/ It was indicated to be in range and to the south. Hopefully it was still in Sneaky's possession. They proceeded across the room towards the archway to the large chamber with the dais/cauldron. The moans and wails cried out from beneath the floor but they ignored these. Peering into the chamber, they saw two more of the monk-demons, along with a small group of ghouls, standing about the dais and chanting. Laid on the dais around the cauldron was some huge dog-like creature, presumably dead as it was not moving at all. Mazaramus prepared to cast a fire ball at the figures around the dais, while Lithanor entered the chamber and slinked around, keeping to the walls.
Either the chanting figures were unaware of the party or they were too intent on their chanting to stop and look around. Mazaramus unleashed his
fire ball. The ghouls were instantly incinerated. The monks were badly singed and fled southwards. Lithanor gave chase, invoking his dragon maw as her did so. Following them along a short corridor leading from the southern end of the temple, he caught up with them when they turned to fight. Being already wounded by Mazaramus, they were soon vanquished by the combinations of Lithanor's sword and his dragon bite attack.The rest of the party entered the temple chamber to follow Lithanor. However, the magic that had been placed over the archway took its effect once more. Klaus and Mazaramus succumbed to the same effects that Sneaky had earlier, totally forgetting who they were where they were, or any events of their life or who their friends were. Gandi and Morgan, however, had not been affected.
Lithanor found himself in a room that was totally bare except for four chests against the far wall. He thought he saw one of the chests move slightly, so he moved towards it. He cast a detect invisible spell and, as he guessed, was able to see Sneaky hiding behind the chests.
Gandi and Morgan could now hear several more shrieks coming from the main courtyard of the abbey. The rest of the monk-beasts were closing in, and they had a befuddled mage and cleric to tend to. Gandi withdrew his heartstone. It glowed bright green. he touched it to Klaus and then Mazaramus. As he did so, they regained their senses, remembering who they were. The heartstone faded and dimmed completely, its power now exhausted.
They moved southwards to catch up with Lithanor. He pointed out that Sneaky was huddled in the corner, frightened out of her wits. He had even attempted using a charm person spell on her, but she had somehow resisted its effect, even in her current state. The creatures would be upon them soon, and they seemed to be trapped. To make matters worse, even though Klaus and Mazaramus had had their memories restored, they had forgotten all of their spells, and would need to rest again before refreshing them.
The first of the monks arrived and ran into the corridor towards the party. Ahead of them were two bugbears, evidently in the service of these creatures ort allied with them. Mazaramus may have forgotten his spells, but he still had resources. He withdrew a scroll and cast a web spell in the corridor. Two of the monks were trapped in the web. Two more monks and the two bugbears had made it into the room and charged the party. The rest of the creatures, and the two trapped in the web, clawed away frantically at the web, trying to break through to reach the party. A door beside the corridor entrance opened. Beyond, a huge grizzly bear with the same ghastly, feral appearance as the other beasts loomed in the doorway, and behind it was another monk-creature. The robes, however, were slightly different, having more finery, and they guessed that this was the abbot. He howled out to the other monks to go back and around. They gave up on their attempts to break down the web and soon disappeared.
Morgan, Klaus and Gandi formed a defensive line, fighting off the bugbears and monks that had gotten into the room. Lithanor and Mazaramus remained behind this line, lending what magical support they could. Sneaky huddled in the corner, more terrified than ever and convinced that she was in hell.
Before the feral grizzly bear could charge into the fray, Lithanor cast a wall of ice spell, spanning it from wall to wall and trapping the two bugbears and monk-demons in the room with them. After a rather tough fight, they slew the few foes on their side of the wall of ice. Morgan once again succumbed to the numbing effects when one of the monk-creatures raked him with a claw, but its effects quickly wore off.
The monks had given up on trying to get to the party, at least for now. The abbot had deliberately burnt the webs to free the two that had been trapped within it, not caring whether they got injured in the process. Lithanor's spell would last for a couple of hours, and they fully expected the monks to be still waiting for them.
While they waited, they examined the four chests. They seemed to be just filled with monks clothing, but Lithanor discovered that one of them had a false bottom. Opening this up, it was revealed to be in actual fact a gate to a deep shaft. At the bottom of this, flames leapt up and demonic figures could be seen trying to reach up out of the flames towards the opening in the bottom of the chest. Lithanor quickly closed the chest, and the party decided to burn the chest completely, hoping to destroy the gate along with it. Soon the chest was all but burnt away, and it would seem that the opening had been destroyed along with it. However, the smoke in the confined area made breathing difficult, forcing them to lie close to the floor in order to breathe, and their eyes stung from the smoke and flames. Only the invisible Sneaky was unaffected, thanks to her ring of fire resistance. Even the wall of ice melted at the tops, though the ice continually refreshed through the power of the magic of the spell.
Mazaramus made his best guess as to the passage of time with respect to the duration of the wall of ice. When he deemed that it was close to the expiration of the spell, he stoked up his brazier of commanding fire elementals. If he couldn't cast his spells, he would have an ally fight for him instead. The elemental appeared, emerging from the last few burning brands of the broken chest, and the ice of Lithanor's spell began to vanish. They prepared to fight to the last against these demonic creatures...
Session Eight - Bhut Kicking Time
The ice wall came down. The demonic creatures came screaming into the room from both the doorway and the corridor beside it. The grizzly bear was at the forefront, and just behind the group emerging from the doorway could be seen the beast that had taken over the abbot. Klaus, Gandi and the fire elemental moved forward to block their advance. Morgan and Lithanor held back, supporting with spells and missile fire, though Lithanor had also summoned up his almost ethereal dragon fangs.
Even in its feral state, the grizzly bear still showed the animalistic trait of being afraid of fire, pawing ineffectively, trying to fend away the flames. The abbot screamed out "Kill the wizard!" As most of them engaged the front line of defenders, three moved forward, exploiting the gap left by Morgan and Lithanor. They drew their weapons and moved forward to halt their advance. They could hold two of them, but the third slipped through and advanced on Mazaramus.
Gandi was the first to fell one of the evil fiends. His axes had already dealt some cleaving blows. When it struck back, it hit home with one of its claws, but was sent hurtling backwards as lightning arced over the dwarfs armour and into the creature, which now lay in a crumpled, bubbling mass. However, Klaus and the elemental had succumbed to the numbing effects of their attacks, their movements now sluggish and lethargic.
They fought on desperately. There was nothing that Mazaramus could do about the creature advancing towards him other than have the elemental attack it. The abbot-demon himself now entered the fray, three of the creatures besetting the elemental. The grizzly bear moved away from the fiery beast and instead engaged Gandi. The dwarf, seeing the plight of the wizard, turned to run back and try to intercept the demon that was closing on him. The bear took a free swipe at the dwarf as he turned, catching him with one of its claws. Klaus had been fighting one of the creatures with his snake staff, and getting some solid hits despite his numbness. He tried to encoil the creature with the staff in snake form, but he found that they were resistant to such effects. Morgan had taken a few hits from the creatures as well, but his earlier encounters with them must have yielded some resistance to their poisonous attacks.
Gandi rushed to block the demonic monk that was now upon Mazaramus, doing his best to block with flailing axes. The creature ignored him and struck at Mazaramus. A claw slashed across the wizard, and even as he was reeling from the pain, felt its fangs sink into his arm. His concentration over the elemental was broken.
The creatures sensed that they were gaining the upper hand in the battle. The elemental advanced on Mazaramus. Its path blocked by both Gandi and one of the 'monks' it lashed out with a fiery fist-like appendage at the monk, but failed to find its mark. Mazaramus was now under the effects of the numbing poison, as were Morgan, his resistance finally giving way to the relentless attacks, and even Lithanor. Klaus, however, was beginning to shake off the effects. He concentrated on felling the bear first, relying on his armour and his displacer cloak to save him from any attacks from the monk-fiend also attacking him. In desperation, Mazaramus manoeuvred slightly to the side and unleashed a lightning bolt from his staff of power, destroying the demon that was attacking him and wounding the fire elemental and the abbot. Lithanor had slain the creature that had engaged him and moved to assist Mazaramus. This was no longer necessary, as Gandi delivered the final blow that dismissed the elemental.
Even in its feral state, the grizzly bear still showed the animalistic trait of being afraid of fire, pawing ineffectively, trying to fend away the flames. The abbot screamed out "Kill the wizard!" As most of them engaged the front line of defenders, three moved forward, exploiting the gap left by Morgan and Lithanor. They drew their weapons and moved forward to halt their advance. They could hold two of them, but the third slipped through and advanced on Mazaramus.
Gandi was the first to fell one of the evil fiends. His axes had already dealt some cleaving blows. When it struck back, it hit home with one of its claws, but was sent hurtling backwards as lightning arced over the dwarfs armour and into the creature, which now lay in a crumpled, bubbling mass. However, Klaus and the elemental had succumbed to the numbing effects of their attacks, their movements now sluggish and lethargic.
They fought on desperately. There was nothing that Mazaramus could do about the creature advancing towards him other than have the elemental attack it. The abbot-demon himself now entered the fray, three of the creatures besetting the elemental. The grizzly bear moved away from the fiery beast and instead engaged Gandi. The dwarf, seeing the plight of the wizard, turned to run back and try to intercept the demon that was closing on him. The bear took a free swipe at the dwarf as he turned, catching him with one of its claws. Klaus had been fighting one of the creatures with his snake staff, and getting some solid hits despite his numbness. He tried to encoil the creature with the staff in snake form, but he found that they were resistant to such effects. Morgan had taken a few hits from the creatures as well, but his earlier encounters with them must have yielded some resistance to their poisonous attacks.
Gandi rushed to block the demonic monk that was now upon Mazaramus, doing his best to block with flailing axes. The creature ignored him and struck at Mazaramus. A claw slashed across the wizard, and even as he was reeling from the pain, felt its fangs sink into his arm. His concentration over the elemental was broken.
The creatures sensed that they were gaining the upper hand in the battle. The elemental advanced on Mazaramus. Its path blocked by both Gandi and one of the 'monks' it lashed out with a fiery fist-like appendage at the monk, but failed to find its mark. Mazaramus was now under the effects of the numbing poison, as were Morgan, his resistance finally giving way to the relentless attacks, and even Lithanor. Klaus, however, was beginning to shake off the effects. He concentrated on felling the bear first, relying on his armour and his displacer cloak to save him from any attacks from the monk-fiend also attacking him. In desperation, Mazaramus manoeuvred slightly to the side and unleashed a lightning bolt from his staff of power, destroying the demon that was attacking him and wounding the fire elemental and the abbot. Lithanor had slain the creature that had engaged him and moved to assist Mazaramus. This was no longer necessary, as Gandi delivered the final blow that dismissed the elemental.
The abbot pressed the attack, though now most of those affected were beginning to recover from the numbness effect of their attacks. In his over-confidence, the abbot failed to notice that the party now outnumbered the demon-monks. Morgan had had a tough time felling his opposite number, his martial skills even failing him at one point as he made a clumsy effort to run the creature through. Nonetheless, he prevailed and finally slew his foe. The abbot was felled by Lithanor's dragon maw that was floating about and assisting in the combat. Only two were left. One had moved to attack Mazaramus once again, but this time it failed to get around the wizard's magical protections. Finally the last two were slain by the combined attacks of the heroes, who now stood in a mess of inhuman corpses and white goo that passed for the creature's blood.They searched through the creatures, that were now rapidly decomposing, but found nothing of interest or value. Mazaramus had assumed the abbot to be a spell-caster, but as it turned out this was not the case. Exploring the room on the other side of the door that the abbot had come from, they found that this was just some antechamber with little of interest, other than a chained giant rattlesnake lurking under a table. Klaus slew the beast with a couple of hefty whacks of his mace. It was something of a relief that the abbot hadn't unleashed this into the fight as well. The fact that it was chained indicated that it wasn't under the control of the creatures.
Another door led from this chamber on the far side. They were about to investigate when Lithanor heard squelching sounds behind him back in the room where they had fought the demons. He went to investigate, and found footprints in the ichor. These led towards the corridor leading to the main temple, but they faded after a few steps. They had forgotten about Sneaky!
Morgan rushed back to cover the front entrance to the temple. The door was still closed, so he assumed that Sneaky hadn't left that way. Gandi, Lithanor and Klaus made a fruitless search for her, concentrating on the main temple itself. It is very difficult to find someone who is invisible, silent and doesn't want to be found due to being scared out of her wits. Mazaramus resorted to using his crystal ball once again, and located her in the entrance foyer where Morgan was guarding the door. The capuchin monkey was now awake, still atop its wheel, and looking around suspiciously. Arriving at the entrance room, Mazaramus indicated where he believed Sneaky to be. He even tried calling out to her, but failed to realise that she didn't even know her own name. Morgan made a flying leap in an attempt to grapple her.He had a fleeting sense of something nimbly dodging away before his face hit the floor.
They thought of opening the door to the room with the dragon shrine. This area emanating a strong aura of goodness, untainted by the evil of the abbot and his followers, and they hoped to lure Sneaky into that room were she might feel safer. The capuchin leapt off its wheel and ran into the room. Thinking they had her cornered, Mazaramus and Gandi slowly proceeded a,long the narrow room, arms outstretched. Meanwhile, Klaus and Lithanor had spread a rope out and proceeded to sweep the entrance room with it pulled tied between them, circling the pole/wheel. Nothing.
Mazaramus and Gandi reached the shrine at the far end of the room. So far, they had not made contact with anything. There was a gap around the sides and rear of the stand which the dragon statue was on, and they moved around either side of it. On the other side, they found the invisible Sneaky. Futilely, they tried to grab her but she slipped away again. By now, Klaus was in the doorway, and Morgan had also entered. They finally caught her as she tried to make for the door, taking three of them to pin her down. With great reluctance, and for the sake of her own safety, they tied her up. They agreed that they should get some rest, staying in the room of the shrine while they slept so that they could regain their spells. in the morning.
The rest of the night passed without incident. Once he had prayed for his spells, Klaus cast a remove curse spell on Sneaky. Her memories returned. The events of the night were still clear to her as well, including her feelings of horror at all the she had beheld. The monkey was still with them, so Klaus cast a speak with animals to converse with the little creature. It was profusely grateful to the party for dealing with the monsters, and particularly to Klaus for saving it from its nightmarish existence. It didn't have a lot of information to offer, having been kept in the same room for as long as it could remember. It did agree to tag along with the party for the time being. It felt safer with them for company.They resumed their search of the temple compound. First, Lithanor investigated the dais in the main temple. Using Scorbane, he found a secret compartment holding a small amount of treasure, as well as a detailed map of the area around the abbey, including the location of the Great Pass.
The door that they had found in the antechamber where Klaus had slain the rattlesnake led into the abbots room. Mazaramus had seen this room before, recognising it from the silks on the walls and furs carpeting the floor, when he had scried the two monks. Some of the furnishings themselves were quite valuable, and amidst the trappings they found a substantial amount of coin as well as two scrolls. Mazaramus hadn't taken a read magic spell (and once again forgot that he had it on a scroll). Fortunately, Scorbane could read magic, and identified the spells on them. Transcribing them to their spell-books would have to wait for now, though.
Klaus turned his attention to the shrine in the south-west corner of the room. A plaque above it depicted a demonic skull-like beast, as of some deformed boar-like creature. The sight of it filled him with revulsion. He held aloft his mace and proceeded to smash the shrine. Sparks of energy danced about his mace as he struck, and soon the shrine was smashed to pieces. An ominous rumble sounded from outside the abbey. Looking out of a nearby window, they saw that they sky was rapidly darkening as black clouds moved in. The rumbling of the thunder grew louder. They suddenly felt the need to depart from this room as rapidly as possible. They had crossed the room where they had had their battle the night before. Mazaramus drew a rune on the wall to reshape the stone so that they could make a swift exit. They were barely through when a terrific blast of lightning struck close by behind them, hitting the abbots room. Klaus was last through Mazaramus' makeshift portal. He felt a blast of energy and was thrown forward as lightning danced about the head of the mace that had destroyed the shrine.
Mazaramus tried to create another rune in the outer wall, but in his haste he misdrew the rune and it's magic failed. Lithanor had thrown his rope of climbing over the wall, but seeing the unconscious Klaus lying there realised that carrying him over would be almost impossible, unless...
Lithanor conjured up his dragon wings and bore the cleric aloft, carrying him safely across the wall. Lightning continued to strike with furious blasts, but they were concentrated on the area about the abbots room. A third blast, and rocks and debris went flying in all directions, though the heroes were in no danger now that they were a safe distance from the temple, and dust billowed from what remained of that section of the abbey. The rumbling of thunder receded. The clouds began to lighten, then dissipate, revealing blue skies once again. The abbots room and the entire south-western section of the temple was now just a mass of rubble.
Once the dust had settled and Klaus had regained consciousness, apparently none the worse for being hit by a bolt of lightning, they began a search of the rest of the abbey. The place now seemed deserted and quiet. They were confident that they had slain all the demonic monks, and could conduct their search at their leisure.
They decided to first explore a low building at the south-eastern end of the abbey. Unlike the other buildings of the abbey, this one was covered with dried, red clay. Immediately inside the doorway in the entry way stood two large statues. One was of an ogre-faced man waving a banner. The other was of a demure old woman holding a piece of cloth. Sneaky interpreted the writing at the base of each statue, identifying them as the 'Guardian Against False Reading and Impious Thought' and 'The Veil of Truth' respectively. Both statues were finely made and would fetch a fair price in a large city, so they stored them in their bags of holding. Exploring the rest of the place, it was evident that this was the library for the abbey.
Two rooms, a large room at the south-east end, and another adjoining it, held a large number of scrolls. They began sifting through them, picking scrolls out at random and studying them. Most of them were mundane texts on the rituals of the abbey or chronicles of events over the past several hundred years. Those in the adjoining room seemed more interesting, many of them having been writing more recently by the creatures that had replaced the former monks. These told how they had taken over the abbey, and they even learnt what these creatures were called. They were known as bhuts. Though not fully alive or even of this world, neither were they undead, and seemed to despise both. Their was also mention of keeping the former abbot alive for questioning.
Realising that searching all of the scrolls for anything magical, they heaped all the scrolls together in a pile in the centre of the main library. Morgan held up his claymore and activated its detect magic power. A few of the scrolls were revealed to be magical. More interesting was the fact that Klaus' mace was glowing more brightly than it used to. That blast of lightning must have imbued it with greater power.
Sneaky was the first to examine one of the magical scrolls. It was a text of theological nature, but seemed she found it intriguing, providing great insight and she felt compelled to read the entire scroll. This benefitted her with a permanent increase in wisdom. Four similar scrolls were found. They discovered that nobody could benefit from a reading twice, and Klaus would gain no benefit from them either, so Mazaramus, Lithanor, Gandi and Morgan each read one, each gaining the same benefit that Sneaky had.
Four other scrolls they had retrieved from the side room. Gandi read one of these first. Unknown to him, it contained a curse that would afflict the weak minded, but to those with wisdom would instantly grant the use of a commune spell. Gandi, in a moment of unusual clarity of thought, gained the benefit of asking six questions, rather than the usual three. He learnt a number of things about the bhuts, the abbey, and the Great Pass. Most importantly he learnt that the bhuts were in league with the Master.
Lithanor also benefited from a commune spell after reading one of the scrolls, learning a few more things about the Master, including the fact that he is a spell-caster. The two remaining scrolls they decided to save for later. However, once they left the library, these two were consumed in flames, vanishing utterly.
Next, they returned to the blacksmith's building. This time they gave it a more thorough search, especially the coal stack. Mixed in with the coal they found two large, uncut diamonds, which Gandi decided to keep hold of.
The next building they searched was a large one-storey building adjoining the temple compound. This was the main kitchens for the abbey. What was immediately apparent was the complete lack of food in the place. They opened an adjoining room that they guessed to be the cold storage for the kitchens. This was lined with the bodies of the actual monks before the place had been taken over by the bhuts. Several of them had been partially devoured, most likely by the bhuts judging by the shape and size of the bites.
Another building at the north-west end of the abbey turned out to be the bathroom. A large bath was now covered in brown algae. Lithanor went forward to investigate. Through gaps in the algae he could vaguely make out something sparkling at the bottom, but then the algae started moving towards him. Mazaramus reacted quickly and cast a fire ball, engulfing most of the pool in flames. At the same instant, Morgan, remembering that he had a ring of spell storing (which might have been useful in their combat with the bhuts), cast a lightning bolt at the advancing mass. An ochre jelly, mostly concealed by the algae, was hit by both spells. Mazaramus did considerable damage to the creature, but Morgan's lightning bolt merely caused it to divide into five smaller ochre jellies. They lashed out at Lithanor with their pseudopods. Lithanor had edged back, so as not be caught in the blast of the spells and so that he fire at it with his longbow of flaming. His fiery arrows slew two of the smaller jellies, and Mazaramus finished the other three off with another fire ball.
The adjoining rooms turned out to be just changing rooms or a storage room for wood and other materials, including some urns of now foul-smelling scented oils. One room, slightly larger than the changing rooms, had strangely discoloured walls and floor. At the opposite end was slumped a skeleton holding a brightly shining sword. Mazaramus suspected that the discolouration was due to mold, possibly the rather dangerous yellow mold. Lithanor stepped up and fired flaming arrows from the safety of the doorway, causing the mold to release its spores, though these too soon perished in the flames.
Once they were satisfied that the mold was slain and the spores cleared, they examined the sword. It was now somewhat tarnished from the flames and proved to be non-magical. Sneaky guessed that its bright sheen could be attributed to enzymes from the yellow mold cleaning of any dirt or impurities.
Continuing along, moving in a clockwise fashion about the buildings along the edge of the abbey, they came to another low building. This one had several doors, some of them being partitioned so that the top and bottom could be opened separately. From here, they could see the stables where they had left the horses the previous evening. The silence of the place now highlighted the fact that there was no sound coming from the stables either. Morgan went forward and found their horses, mutilated and slain by the bhuts.
The building they had arrived at was the granary. Investigating inside, they found that the grain was grey and dry, absolutely rotten. Several beetles and other small insect scurried away as they entered. They could hear the sounds of larger creatures. Panning their lantern around, they saw several emaciated giant rats. These too scurried away from the party. They decided to burn the grain.
Three buildings yet remained to be searched, all of which were two-storey buildings. Two of these were set apart from those running around the circumference of the abbey. The third was directly on the other side of the main double doors from where the guest house was. They had yet to find the real abbot, if he was still alive. They had seen stairs leading down in the abbots room, but this way was now completely blocked by rubble, If their were other areas beneath the abbey, they would have to find another way down.
Session Nine - The Catacombs
Searching the two buildings towards the northern end of the compound yielded little of interest. The first building they checked, the training hall, was protected by a crude swinging axe trap in the doorway that Lithanor and Gandi easily dodged then disarmed. It was evident from the sparse contents of the side rooms that the bhuts had been searching the scrolls written by the monks, though what they were hoping to find was unclear. The second building, the monk's house, was equally uninteresting, except for highlighting the unsavoury dietary habits of the bhuts.
The third building seemed a little strange. This one was just to the south of the guest house where the party had been invited to stay, and abutted the outer compound wall. An area to the south of this appeared to be a storage shed for various tools, which the party gave little more than a cursory examination. Turning their attention back to the building, the doors and window frames seemed to be made of shimmering black wood, with no joins visible between the frames and the building itself. A balcony protruded from an upper floor, and Lithanor and Sneaky decided that they would climb up and enter the building from the door adjoining this balcony while the rest of the party entered through the main door.
The third building seemed a little strange. This one was just to the south of the guest house where the party had been invited to stay, and abutted the outer compound wall. An area to the south of this appeared to be a storage shed for various tools, which the party gave little more than a cursory examination. Turning their attention back to the building, the doors and window frames seemed to be made of shimmering black wood, with no joins visible between the frames and the building itself. A balcony protruded from an upper floor, and Lithanor and Sneaky decided that they would climb up and enter the building from the door adjoining this balcony while the rest of the party entered through the main door.
Lithanor and Sneaky found on the upper floor two adjacent rooms. One seemed to be a supply room, containing a number of common items, candles, lamps, wood for repairs, various tools and such-like. The other was empty save for the scrolls hanging on the walls depicting prayers to some Chaotic deity. These seemed to resist all attempts at destruction. Setting light to them merely caused the flames to flicker and burn for a short while before dwindling to nothing, leaving the scrolls untouched. The most disturbing thing, however, was the scene from the windows. Rather than the mountainous territory they were expecting to see, they instead saw a tree-spotted plain. Only from the windows on the west side were there low mountains far in the distance. Finding a set of stairs, they descended to rejoin the rest of the party.
Gandi and Morgan entered the lower floor, closely followed by Klaus and Mazaramus. They saw a room bare of any furnishings save for a burning brazier in the centre of the room. On the far side, huddled away from the brazier, were three savage creatures. What little skin covered their bony features was rotting, and their eyes glowed with an evil reddish light. At sight of the party, they advanced, keeping to the walls to avoid the brazier. The heroes swiftly exited back through the door they had entered and closed it. Klaus cast some preparatory spells before they entered the room once again.
As soon as they entered, the creatures leapt. They ought to have recognised them as wights, though the last time they had fought one was way back at the Caves of Chaos. One of the wights struck at Gandi, landing a lucky blow that penetrated his armour. Immediately, the dwarf felt his life force partially drain away. Gandi struck back, felling the creature with his axes. Klaus stepped up, and the light of Pellar shone from his holy symbol, and the remaining two wights were vanquished to oblivion.
Klaus turned his attention to Gandi, but the power to restore his lost life energy was beyond even his abilities. Mazaramus wondered whether the brazier was magical, and had Morgan use his detect magic ability. Although the brazier wasn't magical, the building they were in was. They resumed their search through the building. The next room to the north was strewn with cushions and hung with rich fabrics. It was apparent that the bhuts never entered this building (for one thing, they had learn't that the bhuts disliked the undead as much as they did the living denizens of this world). Amongst some papers on a table they discovered a complete listing of the Master's forces that were marching on Pramayama and the lands of Darokin, along with what looked liked codenames for a network of spies. Sneaky and others would later identify Ahmed Khel, the leader of the guards that had been escorting the caravan that the party had travelled with. At the bottom of these sheets was a list of names - Denekin, Bernard, Ashard, Sarah, Dureg, and The Silent One. These were the aliases that the party had used whilst travelling with the caravan, in order to keep their true identities hidden.
By now, Lithanor and Sneaky had rejoined the group. Continuing on, they found a room stacked with weapons of all kinds, and in excellent condition. To the south of this was a locked room. Sneaky picked the lock, and beyond was a dark room with foul-smelling straw littering the floor. From the back of the room came the sound of shuffling and a metallic clinking. Mazaramus readied a fire ball, just in case, despite the fact that the room was too small to contain one and would catch the party in the back-blast. Morgan rolled a pebble with continual light into the room. Huddled away in the far corner, was a young woman, looking in a bedraggled state, covered in blood and scars, and chained to the wall.
They freed the woman, reassuring her that they were here to help, and Klaus tended to her wounds. Her name was Dressla. She had come to the Temple of Death with her adventuring party, hoping to steal a fabulous gem rumoured to be possessed by the Master. Her party had been captured, and she suspected that her fellows were now probably dead. If the party were going to get her out of there, she was anxious that they hurry. Her 'inquisitor', a powerful warrior named Mond, could be back at any time. She also wondered how the party had managed to get past the Master's guards.
Mazaramus came to the realisation that they were now at the Temple of Death, or at least very close to it. Dressla thought that they were at the temple, and in a manner of speaking she was right. When they had entered this building, they had crossed some kind of teleportation threshold. If this was true, then they should take Dressla's advice and leave as quickly as possible. They returned to the abbey. Dressla was amazed at the change of surroundings, but more-so, relieved to be away from the temple.
They had searched the entire compound. The only means of entering whatever lay beneath the abbey seemed to be the stairway that led from the abbot's room. This was now completely blocked with rubble. Lithanor was undeterred. They would just have to do it the hard way. He, Gandi and Morgan would do the muscle work and pull the rocks free. Lithanor had giant strength, thanks to his girdle, and could pull the larger rocks free. Mazaramus pulled his wood golems out of his bag of holding and had them help out too. Klaus also assisted, using the ring of telekinesis that Morgan had given him to move some of the rocks. Sneaky, still invisible, stayed back and chatted with Dressla. It was hard going, but after six hours or so, they finally cleared enough of the rubble to be able to safely descend the stairs.
After going down for some considerable distance, the stairs eventually ended. The party were in the catacombs beneath the abbey, a series of narrow rough-hewn corridors with numerous side branches. Each of these side tunnels ended at a coffin. Some were intact, others were broken open and the skeletal remains of its occupant slumped in a heap of bones. Most of these were unremarkable. A few, however, yielded something of interest. One had a skeleton with a wooden stake driven into its chest. Lithanor was going to take the stake, but Mazaramus stopped him. In all likelihood it was a vampire, and pulling the stake out would not be a good idea. Another held the skeletal remains of a previous abbot of great faith, judging by the inscription on its casket. Beside it was a bone tube. It was found to contain three scrolls, one was a map of the Great Pass, showing the proper route to take to get through it. Dressla pointed out that the map would probably be unreliable. Some great magic had caused the tunnels through the Great Pass to shift and warp, making it very difficult to find a way through. The other two scrolls were a clerical scroll with the spell restore and the other was a magical scroll with the spell cloudkill on it. Mazaramus took the latter scroll. Klaus used the clerical scroll to restore Gandi's lost life energy.
Another alcove seemed to have some writing on the wall above the coffin, but it was obscured by dust and cobwebs. Sneaky went forward to investigate, and triggered a rock fall in the narrow passage. Although she was able to avoid being hit by any of the rocks, she became trapped on the other side. By the time the rest of the party had dug her out, she had discovered a wand and a gem-encrusted crown that had fallen out of the coffin when the rocks had fallen and blocked the tunnel. She had also uncovered the writing, which read "Watch out for the rock fall". The wand had a magical rune on it. Scorbane deciphered the rune for Lithanor, and he guessed that it was a wand of fear, given that the command word was Fobus.
Sneaky scouted further along in the tunnels by herself for a while, taking advantage of her invisibility. Soon, the catacombs ended, but the tunnels continued to wind on through the rock. She soon came to a cavern, about 50' long and 40' wide. A statue of an armoured man stood in the centre of the room. As she advanced further in, she could see that another tunnel led from the cavern on the far side. As she entered, however, the statue boomed ""Ah, small beings, you have come to do homage to me and my gods! Kneel and prey for our mercy!" Sneaky decided to return to the party at this stage. Obviously there was some magic involved here, and Mazaramus or Lithanor would be better suited to deal with it.
The party followed the same route that Sneaky had taken, soon entering the cavern. The statue again boomed out, demanding that they kneel. Morgan advanced towards it. A huge snake, a rock python coiled about the statue, moved towards him menacingly. Klaus cast a snake charm spell, quickly placating the animal, and they advanced to the other side. Mazaramus noted as they passed that the statue was very similar to the figure he had seen in the mirror in the Nagpa's lair.
The tunnel ended shortly, where a number of small niches led off from it. These seemed to have been used as cells, as shackles were fixed to the walls in each. All of them were empty, save for one. In this one a weary figure recoiled from the party as they approached, shielding his eyes from the light of their lantern. He began quivering, saying in a croaked voice "You have learn't enough from me. I will tell you no more" They guessed that this was the real abbot. They released him from his shackles, and Klaus used his healing powers on him, but this was not enough to allay his fears of the party. He was convinced that they were bhuts in disguise, and Klaus' healing was just so that they could keep him alive longer in order to prolong the torture and get more information out of him.
Morgan agreed to lead the abbot to the surface, something that proved rather difficult given the abbot's reluctance to go along. Dressla also accompanied them. It was then that Mazaramus realised that his undead creations that he had picked up since Lithanor destroyed his last batch would hinder their efforts to convince the abbot that they were the benevolent, so he followed along as well. At the top he would rush ahead and order his skeletons and zombies to remain outside the abbey and out of sight.
Lithanor, Gandi, Klaus and Sneaky continued on, exploring the rest of the tunnels. A side passage that they had passed led further on. Gandi noticed that they were gradually going downwards. The tunnels they were in now were more like natural fissures, several of which led to dead ends. At one point they found another cavern. This one having a pool of slightly murky water at its western end. Lithanor thought he could see something gleaming at the bottom, but before they could investigate further, a giant leech rose up out of the water and lunged at Gandi beside him. Gandi dodged the blow, and the leech was quickly slain by the combined thrusts of Scorbane and the hewing from Gandi's axes/ Sneaky leapt into the water to recover the objects at the bottom. The water was quite cold, but nothing compared to the frigid waters of the Icewater Falls. Returning to the surface, revealed her find of three rubies of some value and a potion bottle. Gandi discovered this to be a potion of heroism from testing it. He retained it for himself, making a mental note to drink it before engaging in combat with life-draining undead.
They came upon no more fell creatures in those tunnels, nor any more treasures. They did find three caverns, each with a metal ladder affixed to the floor and running up through a narrow hole in the ceiling. These were found to lead up for some way before ending at the underside of a trapdoor. These led into the various buildings of the abbey,and had the party conducted a more thorough search of the buildings, could have saved themselves the arduous task of clearing the rocks and rubble in the abbot's room/
In addition to the caverns with the ladders, they found the end of the main tunnel, which emerged into daylight and fresh air. They were on the floor of the canyon in which the abbey was situated, and on the far side from where they had ascended the 999 steps. With the maps they had found, it should be an easy matter from here to reach the entrance to the Great Pass.
By the time the four had returned to where Morgan and Mazaramus were waiting, night had fallen once again. The abbot watched them suspiciously for a time, but was soon convinced that they were indeed who they said they were. Had they been bhuts, the coming of the night would have forced them into their monstrous forms. It was now that he shared with the party what he knew of his former captors. Yes, they were in league with the Master, this much he had learned when they gloated about the fate that was to await his pathetic species. There numbers in this world were few, but they sought to bring more of their kind through some kind of dimensional rift. In order to take over the human communities (and possibly demi-humans too) they needed to know more about them and how they think and interact. They would keep their true identities hidden, masquerading as denizens of this world, until their numbers were sufficient to fully take over the communities, by conquest if necessary. Quite whether or how this fell in line with the Master's plans was unknown.
The abbot's talk of a rift reminded Mazaramus about what the nagpa had said. The seven portals, some of which had already been opened, and the other-worldly creatures from dark dimensions that had already been seeping into this world. They took rest for the night, and Mazaramus resolved to risk a teleport spell in the morning, so that he could take the papers showing the composition of the Master's forces to Darokin, and maybe find out if the mages in Glantri could shed any light on these seven portals.
Gandi and Morgan entered the lower floor, closely followed by Klaus and Mazaramus. They saw a room bare of any furnishings save for a burning brazier in the centre of the room. On the far side, huddled away from the brazier, were three savage creatures. What little skin covered their bony features was rotting, and their eyes glowed with an evil reddish light. At sight of the party, they advanced, keeping to the walls to avoid the brazier. The heroes swiftly exited back through the door they had entered and closed it. Klaus cast some preparatory spells before they entered the room once again.
Klaus turned his attention to Gandi, but the power to restore his lost life energy was beyond even his abilities. Mazaramus wondered whether the brazier was magical, and had Morgan use his detect magic ability. Although the brazier wasn't magical, the building they were in was. They resumed their search through the building. The next room to the north was strewn with cushions and hung with rich fabrics. It was apparent that the bhuts never entered this building (for one thing, they had learn't that the bhuts disliked the undead as much as they did the living denizens of this world). Amongst some papers on a table they discovered a complete listing of the Master's forces that were marching on Pramayama and the lands of Darokin, along with what looked liked codenames for a network of spies. Sneaky and others would later identify Ahmed Khel, the leader of the guards that had been escorting the caravan that the party had travelled with. At the bottom of these sheets was a list of names - Denekin, Bernard, Ashard, Sarah, Dureg, and The Silent One. These were the aliases that the party had used whilst travelling with the caravan, in order to keep their true identities hidden.
By now, Lithanor and Sneaky had rejoined the group. Continuing on, they found a room stacked with weapons of all kinds, and in excellent condition. To the south of this was a locked room. Sneaky picked the lock, and beyond was a dark room with foul-smelling straw littering the floor. From the back of the room came the sound of shuffling and a metallic clinking. Mazaramus readied a fire ball, just in case, despite the fact that the room was too small to contain one and would catch the party in the back-blast. Morgan rolled a pebble with continual light into the room. Huddled away in the far corner, was a young woman, looking in a bedraggled state, covered in blood and scars, and chained to the wall.
They freed the woman, reassuring her that they were here to help, and Klaus tended to her wounds. Her name was Dressla. She had come to the Temple of Death with her adventuring party, hoping to steal a fabulous gem rumoured to be possessed by the Master. Her party had been captured, and she suspected that her fellows were now probably dead. If the party were going to get her out of there, she was anxious that they hurry. Her 'inquisitor', a powerful warrior named Mond, could be back at any time. She also wondered how the party had managed to get past the Master's guards.
Mazaramus came to the realisation that they were now at the Temple of Death, or at least very close to it. Dressla thought that they were at the temple, and in a manner of speaking she was right. When they had entered this building, they had crossed some kind of teleportation threshold. If this was true, then they should take Dressla's advice and leave as quickly as possible. They returned to the abbey. Dressla was amazed at the change of surroundings, but more-so, relieved to be away from the temple.
They had searched the entire compound. The only means of entering whatever lay beneath the abbey seemed to be the stairway that led from the abbot's room. This was now completely blocked with rubble. Lithanor was undeterred. They would just have to do it the hard way. He, Gandi and Morgan would do the muscle work and pull the rocks free. Lithanor had giant strength, thanks to his girdle, and could pull the larger rocks free. Mazaramus pulled his wood golems out of his bag of holding and had them help out too. Klaus also assisted, using the ring of telekinesis that Morgan had given him to move some of the rocks. Sneaky, still invisible, stayed back and chatted with Dressla. It was hard going, but after six hours or so, they finally cleared enough of the rubble to be able to safely descend the stairs.
Into the Catacombs
After going down for some considerable distance, the stairs eventually ended. The party were in the catacombs beneath the abbey, a series of narrow rough-hewn corridors with numerous side branches. Each of these side tunnels ended at a coffin. Some were intact, others were broken open and the skeletal remains of its occupant slumped in a heap of bones. Most of these were unremarkable. A few, however, yielded something of interest. One had a skeleton with a wooden stake driven into its chest. Lithanor was going to take the stake, but Mazaramus stopped him. In all likelihood it was a vampire, and pulling the stake out would not be a good idea. Another held the skeletal remains of a previous abbot of great faith, judging by the inscription on its casket. Beside it was a bone tube. It was found to contain three scrolls, one was a map of the Great Pass, showing the proper route to take to get through it. Dressla pointed out that the map would probably be unreliable. Some great magic had caused the tunnels through the Great Pass to shift and warp, making it very difficult to find a way through. The other two scrolls were a clerical scroll with the spell restore and the other was a magical scroll with the spell cloudkill on it. Mazaramus took the latter scroll. Klaus used the clerical scroll to restore Gandi's lost life energy.
Another alcove seemed to have some writing on the wall above the coffin, but it was obscured by dust and cobwebs. Sneaky went forward to investigate, and triggered a rock fall in the narrow passage. Although she was able to avoid being hit by any of the rocks, she became trapped on the other side. By the time the rest of the party had dug her out, she had discovered a wand and a gem-encrusted crown that had fallen out of the coffin when the rocks had fallen and blocked the tunnel. She had also uncovered the writing, which read "Watch out for the rock fall". The wand had a magical rune on it. Scorbane deciphered the rune for Lithanor, and he guessed that it was a wand of fear, given that the command word was Fobus.
Sneaky scouted further along in the tunnels by herself for a while, taking advantage of her invisibility. Soon, the catacombs ended, but the tunnels continued to wind on through the rock. She soon came to a cavern, about 50' long and 40' wide. A statue of an armoured man stood in the centre of the room. As she advanced further in, she could see that another tunnel led from the cavern on the far side. As she entered, however, the statue boomed ""Ah, small beings, you have come to do homage to me and my gods! Kneel and prey for our mercy!" Sneaky decided to return to the party at this stage. Obviously there was some magic involved here, and Mazaramus or Lithanor would be better suited to deal with it.
The party followed the same route that Sneaky had taken, soon entering the cavern. The statue again boomed out, demanding that they kneel. Morgan advanced towards it. A huge snake, a rock python coiled about the statue, moved towards him menacingly. Klaus cast a snake charm spell, quickly placating the animal, and they advanced to the other side. Mazaramus noted as they passed that the statue was very similar to the figure he had seen in the mirror in the Nagpa's lair.
The tunnel ended shortly, where a number of small niches led off from it. These seemed to have been used as cells, as shackles were fixed to the walls in each. All of them were empty, save for one. In this one a weary figure recoiled from the party as they approached, shielding his eyes from the light of their lantern. He began quivering, saying in a croaked voice "You have learn't enough from me. I will tell you no more" They guessed that this was the real abbot. They released him from his shackles, and Klaus used his healing powers on him, but this was not enough to allay his fears of the party. He was convinced that they were bhuts in disguise, and Klaus' healing was just so that they could keep him alive longer in order to prolong the torture and get more information out of him.
Morgan agreed to lead the abbot to the surface, something that proved rather difficult given the abbot's reluctance to go along. Dressla also accompanied them. It was then that Mazaramus realised that his undead creations that he had picked up since Lithanor destroyed his last batch would hinder their efforts to convince the abbot that they were the benevolent, so he followed along as well. At the top he would rush ahead and order his skeletons and zombies to remain outside the abbey and out of sight.
Lithanor, Gandi, Klaus and Sneaky continued on, exploring the rest of the tunnels. A side passage that they had passed led further on. Gandi noticed that they were gradually going downwards. The tunnels they were in now were more like natural fissures, several of which led to dead ends. At one point they found another cavern. This one having a pool of slightly murky water at its western end. Lithanor thought he could see something gleaming at the bottom, but before they could investigate further, a giant leech rose up out of the water and lunged at Gandi beside him. Gandi dodged the blow, and the leech was quickly slain by the combined thrusts of Scorbane and the hewing from Gandi's axes/ Sneaky leapt into the water to recover the objects at the bottom. The water was quite cold, but nothing compared to the frigid waters of the Icewater Falls. Returning to the surface, revealed her find of three rubies of some value and a potion bottle. Gandi discovered this to be a potion of heroism from testing it. He retained it for himself, making a mental note to drink it before engaging in combat with life-draining undead.They came upon no more fell creatures in those tunnels, nor any more treasures. They did find three caverns, each with a metal ladder affixed to the floor and running up through a narrow hole in the ceiling. These were found to lead up for some way before ending at the underside of a trapdoor. These led into the various buildings of the abbey,and had the party conducted a more thorough search of the buildings, could have saved themselves the arduous task of clearing the rocks and rubble in the abbot's room/
In addition to the caverns with the ladders, they found the end of the main tunnel, which emerged into daylight and fresh air. They were on the floor of the canyon in which the abbey was situated, and on the far side from where they had ascended the 999 steps. With the maps they had found, it should be an easy matter from here to reach the entrance to the Great Pass.
By the time the four had returned to where Morgan and Mazaramus were waiting, night had fallen once again. The abbot watched them suspiciously for a time, but was soon convinced that they were indeed who they said they were. Had they been bhuts, the coming of the night would have forced them into their monstrous forms. It was now that he shared with the party what he knew of his former captors. Yes, they were in league with the Master, this much he had learned when they gloated about the fate that was to await his pathetic species. There numbers in this world were few, but they sought to bring more of their kind through some kind of dimensional rift. In order to take over the human communities (and possibly demi-humans too) they needed to know more about them and how they think and interact. They would keep their true identities hidden, masquerading as denizens of this world, until their numbers were sufficient to fully take over the communities, by conquest if necessary. Quite whether or how this fell in line with the Master's plans was unknown.
The abbot's talk of a rift reminded Mazaramus about what the nagpa had said. The seven portals, some of which had already been opened, and the other-worldly creatures from dark dimensions that had already been seeping into this world. They took rest for the night, and Mazaramus resolved to risk a teleport spell in the morning, so that he could take the papers showing the composition of the Master's forces to Darokin, and maybe find out if the mages in Glantri could shed any light on these seven portals.
Mazaramus Returns to Glantri
The following morning, Mazaramus relearnt his spells, including taking a teleport spell. He was quite familiar with the laboratory in which he had crafted his golems, and chose that as his destination for the spell. Their were no guarantees. He could easily end up appearing some distance in the air above his target destination, or even re-emerge in solid rock. Nevertheless, he took the chance.
The familiar surroundings of the laboratory appeared around him. The teleport had worked. He pondered his next move. He knew that nearby was a tavern which was his arranged meeting point for arranging contact with the Secret Circle of the Cryptomancers. His thoughts were interrupted moments later when another mage entered the laboratory. After a brief admonishing from the mage about having the current lease on the laboratory, Mazaramus left and headed for the tavern.
It wasn't long before he was met by a contact from the Secret Circle and taken to the same pale-skinned elven woman whom he had met with before undertaking this quest. He expressed his need to get to Darokin, to notify the military leaders of the Master's plans in more detail and hand over the notes. The woman, who as yet had not revealed her name, suggested that they discretely teleport there right away. Officially, Glantri was not supposed to be involved in the war between Darokin and the desert nomads of the Sind. Unofficially, she would lend what aid she could. He also told her what he had learnt about the seven portals. Though it seemed to come as no surprise, it did seem to cause her some concern.
Mazaramus was teleported to Darokin, followed by the elf. The authorities and military leaders were immensely grateful to Mazaramus for the information. They knew that the armies of the Master were getting very close to the edge of the Sind desert now, and very soon Pramayama would be under threat, and the Darokin settlements on the western side of the great Lake Amsorak, including the city of Akesoli, would follow shortly after if it fell. Some reports suggested that the Master's armies had already reached the edge of the Sind desert, were now consolidating their forces, readying for a major invasion. Once he had made his report, the elven woman once again cast a teleport spell, sending Mazaramus back to the abbey. Mazaramus wondered how she knew where to send him, given that the spell required knowledge of the destination in order to work, but then recalled a comment that she had made about her 'finding his exploits quite entertaining'.
The party were soon getting ready to leave. Although the abbey had been cleared, the abbot felt it unwise to stay there while the Master still held sway over these areas. The mysterious house that seemed to lead directly to the Temple of Death itself caused him great concern. If the Master could control the means of entering and exiting the house, what is to say that the Master's forces could simply use it to take over the abbey again. There were some small settlements in the nearby hills, groups of people living off the land in small communities, some of whom he had helped and traded with before the abbey was taken over by the bhuts. He would go to one of these settlements, at least until it was safe to return to the abbey again. Dressla had no wish to go anywhere near the Temple of Death again, and agreed to accompany the abbot.
Ready once more, the heroes left the abbey, going by way of the tunnels that led to the northern side. From there, they followed the maps that they hoped would lead to the entrance to the Great Pass, beyond which, in the land of Hule, was the Temple of Death.
The familiar surroundings of the laboratory appeared around him. The teleport had worked. He pondered his next move. He knew that nearby was a tavern which was his arranged meeting point for arranging contact with the Secret Circle of the Cryptomancers. His thoughts were interrupted moments later when another mage entered the laboratory. After a brief admonishing from the mage about having the current lease on the laboratory, Mazaramus left and headed for the tavern.
It wasn't long before he was met by a contact from the Secret Circle and taken to the same pale-skinned elven woman whom he had met with before undertaking this quest. He expressed his need to get to Darokin, to notify the military leaders of the Master's plans in more detail and hand over the notes. The woman, who as yet had not revealed her name, suggested that they discretely teleport there right away. Officially, Glantri was not supposed to be involved in the war between Darokin and the desert nomads of the Sind. Unofficially, she would lend what aid she could. He also told her what he had learnt about the seven portals. Though it seemed to come as no surprise, it did seem to cause her some concern.
Mazaramus was teleported to Darokin, followed by the elf. The authorities and military leaders were immensely grateful to Mazaramus for the information. They knew that the armies of the Master were getting very close to the edge of the Sind desert now, and very soon Pramayama would be under threat, and the Darokin settlements on the western side of the great Lake Amsorak, including the city of Akesoli, would follow shortly after if it fell. Some reports suggested that the Master's armies had already reached the edge of the Sind desert, were now consolidating their forces, readying for a major invasion. Once he had made his report, the elven woman once again cast a teleport spell, sending Mazaramus back to the abbey. Mazaramus wondered how she knew where to send him, given that the spell required knowledge of the destination in order to work, but then recalled a comment that she had made about her 'finding his exploits quite entertaining'.
The party were soon getting ready to leave. Although the abbey had been cleared, the abbot felt it unwise to stay there while the Master still held sway over these areas. The mysterious house that seemed to lead directly to the Temple of Death itself caused him great concern. If the Master could control the means of entering and exiting the house, what is to say that the Master's forces could simply use it to take over the abbey again. There were some small settlements in the nearby hills, groups of people living off the land in small communities, some of whom he had helped and traded with before the abbey was taken over by the bhuts. He would go to one of these settlements, at least until it was safe to return to the abbey again. Dressla had no wish to go anywhere near the Temple of Death again, and agreed to accompany the abbot.
Ready once more, the heroes left the abbey, going by way of the tunnels that led to the northern side. From there, they followed the maps that they hoped would lead to the entrance to the Great Pass, beyond which, in the land of Hule, was the Temple of Death.
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